Now Your Nightmare Comes to Life
by J.O. aka TheCatweazle
Summary: Since Nick Wilde joined the ZPD three years ago, he and Judy Hopps have been partners and highly successful cops. Over time however, and unbeknownst to Judy, Nick developed strong feelings for the feisty bunny - only to learn that dreams can quickly turn into nightmares … Sequel to "How to Treat a Festering Wound" and prequel to "Hammer to Fall."
1. Chapter One - Fastest Bunny in Zootopia

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **It's been almost two years since I published the first chapter of this story. Back then, after just having seen the movie Zootopia for the first time - and liking it immensely, of course -, I immediately had several ideas for a (probably somewhat sappy) romantic comedy revolving around our favorite prey/predator couple. So I sat down and started writing, never even thinking that I could publish it on any fanfiction site.**

 **But then several things happened, and all at the same time. First, I discovered this fanfiction site and decided on a whim to publish the story there - and I still like to think this was one of my better decisions. Next, several events changed this story in a massive way, so the end result had nothing in common with what I had had in mind at the onset. When the story was completed after about three weeks, I started writing a sequel, which soon exploded in size and scope. And all of a sudden, I found myself smack in the middle of thousands of elaborate ideas, threads, and possibilities.**

 **In short, everything changed.**

 **Today, this story, my first ever attempt at writing fanfiction, is as far from being a comedy as Clawhauser is from fitting through the eye of a needle. It firmly belongs in the "Drama" department, with a bit of "Romance" thrown into the mix. And it no longer is a standalone affair. It actually is part of a trilogy that starts with "How to Treat a Festering Wound" and will find its conclusion - eventually! - in "Hammer to Fall." While it may still be possible to read and understand this story all on its own, it's quite useful to read "Wound" first before reading this, as it explains quite a lot of things which I will take for granted in this story.**

 **In case you think that you can't be bothered with reading a story that's 180k+ words long, here's a (very short) summary:**

 **"Wound" begins shortly after the arrest of Dawn Bellwether. Judy, Nick, and Bogo go on to discuss her successor, agreeing that Leodore Lionheart, despite having falsely imprisoned several predators, still is the best mammal for the job. Judy, hell-bent on repairing the damage she caused single-pawed during the press conference, convinces Bogo to allow her to appear in front of the press for a second time. There, she goes on to deliver a lengthy speech in which she explains her mistakes and apologizes for them. On top of that, she accuses prey mammals of harassing and even attacking harmless predators, claiming that they were using her mistakes as an excuse to make the lives of predators a living hell. And she suggests that Lionheart might still be the Mayor Zootopia needs.**

 **A series of rather convoluted events follows, which leads to the arrest of four more members of the City Council. Nick plays a vital role in those arrests, since his extensive knowledge of Zootopia and its citizens gives Bogo and the other police officers the tools to enforce the law in a proper way. This in turn motivates Bogo to help Nick get the coveted place at the Zootopia Police Academy, turning the former con-artist into a police officer.**

 **In the end, everything falls into place. Lionheart is freed from prison and becomes Mayor of Zootopia again. Nick enrolls at the ZPA, finishing with top grades to become a police officer, and after some hardship, Judy also finds her place within the ZPD. And both go on to become highly successful and respected crime fighters.**

 **There are a lot of secondary characters to be found within "Wound." Some of them play a vital role in this story, some will only reappear in the sequel, "Hammer."**

 **I'm fully aware that this short summary doesn't really explain a whole lot. That's the problem with storylines which span over several distinct stories. But that's all the explanation I'm going to give you right now - I don't want to retell "Wound" in its entirety here, after all. (It would render its existence quite pointless.) In case you don't understand several things within this story and would like to, please read "Wound" first - it should give you all the explanation you need.**

 **"Wound" also ripped a few sizeable holes into this story's plot, which is why I decided to give this story a thorough overhaul. So in case you've read this story before, be prepared from a lot of changes, some of them quite subtle, i.e. you won't even notice them, but some of them major, i.e. plot-changing.**

 **Like I said, everything changed. So this story has to change, too. And this goes for everything, the story itself as well as the author's notes which, as a rule, are quite lengthy. (One of my faithful reviewers told me that some guys within the fanfiction community have started calling these extensive author's notes "Catweazeling." I take that as a compliment!) I tried to keep the author's notes largely as they were when I first wrote this story, particularly in regards of the stats and reviews, but there are some changes I deemed necessary.**

 **This story is, in its core, a WildeHopps story. Some of the topics I mention are quite gruesome, and a few four-letter words may crop up here and there, hence the T rating. Whenever I sit down to write a story, properly researching the subject matter I'm dealing with is hugely important to me - it usually is what takes longest. Still, it's very possible that I made a mistake or two. Should you find one, please let me know. And if you come across a grammar and/or orthographical blunder, please tell me, so that I can make the necessary corrections. I'm from Germany, German's my native tongue, not English, and while I like to think that my grasp of the English language is extraordinary, I'm fully aware that there still are mistakes I make on a constant basis, simply because I don't know better. If you spot one of those pesky mistakes, please let me know! Thanks in advance!**

 **If you want to comment on this story, fire away! Criticism, comments and reviews are always welcome. I have vowed to myself to answer every comment in person, so as long as you are logged in, you can expect to receive a private message in response to your comment. And for all members of the "Zootopia Discord Server," I can also be found there - my username is "TheCatweazle," obviously enough. Just give me a shout!**

 **Disclaimer: The movie "Zootopia" and everything depicted therein belongs to Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios, copyrighted in 2016. I own nothing of it. I'm just playing in their backyard and beg forgiveness for the damage I may have caused to their property.**

 **The title is a reference to the song "Nightmare" by Avenged Sevenfold, one of my favorite heavy metal songs. If you don't know it yet, check it out! (Written by Brian Haner, Jonathan Seward, Matthew Sanders and Zachary Baker, from the album "Nightmare," Warner Bros., 2010)**

 **Speaking of songs, I've made it a habit of giving every chapter of "Wound" and "Hammer" a motto song. I didn't do it with this story the first time around, something I regretted in the meantime. Now, with this overhaul going on, every chapter receives its own motto song, and I also changed the format a bit, similar to my other stories. It's just a stylistic change, but I think it improves readability. I also changed the titles of several chapters - during my first attempt, I hadn't bothered with giving titles at all, adding them only later on a whim, a whim which led to some quite ill-fitting ones.**

 **With all that being said, on with the show!**

* * *

Chapter One

 **The Fastest Bunny in all Zootopia**

 _Nobody gonna beat my car. It's gonna break the speed of sound._

Deep Purple: "Highway Star" (Written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice, from the album "Machine Head," EMI/Warner Bros., 1972)

* * *

Zootopia was groaning under one of the worst heat waves in the history of mammalkind. For more than four weeks, the metropolis had seen little rain and countless hours of scorching sunshine. The technicians maintaining the climate wall of Tundratown had to work overtime to make sure the district stayed nice and frosty, yet even there, the temperature had risen to an unheard-of 30 degrees Fahrenheit, at least ten degrees higher than the norm. Savanna Central, meanwhile, was reeling under 120 degrees Fahrenheit and had been for almost three weeks in a row.

Looking out of the windscreen of their cruiser, Nick Wilde observed the pedestrians on the sidewalks passing their parking position - the few there were. They were moving slowly, as if each and every one of them had miraculously turned into sloths. They were all, Nick thought, probably just trying to play the Mikado game - he who moves first loses. Every movement in this kind of heat was sucking energy out of your body, and not everyone was as fortunate as Nick to be seated in a fully air-conditioned police car. Still, the heat and especially the relentless burning of the sun were taking its toll on him. Hadn't it been for the sunglasses he was wearing almost constantly, his sensitive eyes would surely have started to suffer at one point or another, and he found to his dismay that it was very hard to avoid panting, the only proper way for him to cool down a bit, as the few sweat glands in his paws and ears weren't enough to disperse heat. A frosted smoothie was a huge help, like the one he was sipping on while enjoying his little break - carrot and celery, mixed with a bit of basil. As the omnivore he was, vegetables were fine with him, but a few years ago, he would probably have bought something with a higher protein content, crushed crickets or something. Back then, he wouldn't have touched a carrot smoothie with a ten-foot pole, but the stuff had long since started to grow on him. His partners' antics were slowly, but surely, rubbing off on him, no doubt about that.

Said partner, sitting next to him, looked at him with her huge eyes. "Your turn." Her eagerness was almost palpable. Whatever Judy Hopps did, it always left the impression of huge intensity. Regardless of the weather.

Nick didn't bother concealing his grin. She was so going to lose this one! "Okay, Carrots. I spy with my little eye something that is purple." Lowering his sunglasses to confirm the hue was unnecessary. He had seen the color so many times, he would probably still remember it on his deathbed.

She made a frown, and her nose started twitching. "Purple?"

"Yep."

She gave him a grin. "You don't exactly strike me as the kind of mammal to be interested in the color purple."

He had to chuckle at that. "Come on, do I look like an ordinary mammal to you?"

"Define 'ordinary.'"

"Gee, I don't know. A guy with a regular job and solid income, maybe a wife and three cubs, a guy who pays his taxes, a guy who stays within the boundaries of law." He shrugged. "Just ordinary."

"You mean everything you are not."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She grinned at him. "Didn't you just say you were not the ordinary type of mammal?"

"Hey, I _am_ a police officer, Fluff! _And_ I pay my taxes!"

"Yeah, _now_ you do."

He gave her his most mocking grin. "You know you love me."

Of course she jumped at the opportunity to return their usual jest. "Do I know that? Yes, yes, I do." She looked around through the windscreen of their police cruiser. "Well, let's see. That armadillo in the purple dress?"

"Nope." Nick watched her in amusement. She would never be able to find this one.

"Erm, the handbag."

"Which handbag?"

"That one, belonging to the hippo." She pointed in the appropriate direction.

"No, not _that_ one."

"But it _is_ a handbag?"

"Did I say that?"

She growled, a sound which still struck him as funny, seeing that it was coming from a bunny. "Stop messing with my head! Uh, the car parked back over there."

Nick chuckled. "Sweetheart, I can see at least _sixty_ parked cars from here. I'm afraid you need to be a teensy bit more specific."

"There," she pointed again. "In front of the cinema."

"Again, no." He looked at his wristwatch. "Hurry up, Carrots. You already lost a minute of your precious time."

As far as Nick was concerned, nobody should be forced to work in this kind of weather, but Judy and Nick were doing just that, at least in theory - they were on patrol duty in Savanna Central. Not that it seemed to be necessary. It was as if life itself was in stasis - from their high vantage point in their police cruiser, Judy and Nick saw much fewer animals than usual walking along on the streets. Nick had been quite glad to be able to sit in their cruiser, driving around instead of being forced to walk, with the AC running at full power. Sadly, this had not alleviated the horrors of patrol duty on a day when nothing seemed to be going on whatsoever. The day had been so outrageously boring, the biggest threat they had faced was falling into a stupor. So far, their patrol had yielded a complete and utter blank - no grab-and-run, no conning, not even traffic or parking violations. Since starting their shift, they had worked their way through at least two dozen different children's games to while away the time, to prevent falling asleep due to heat and boredom. The one they were playing right now, during their break, hadn't even been known to him, but Judy had a lot of experience. After all, she had grown up among hundreds of brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, and what have you, most of them younger than she was, and some of them with an unquenchable thirst for games. This experience, however, didn't help her at all right now; she was going down, big time. No surprise there - a fox's eyes are much more effective at spying things from a distance, at distinguishing colors, than a rabbit's eyes could ever be. She had only been able to find one out of the four items he had asked her to find, while he had found the five items she had wanted him to with relative ease.

She surveyed their surroundings, turning her head in an almost frantic way. In the meantime, Nick was watching her. Not looking for a certain movement, for any clue that she unraveled his latest hustle. Just watching her.

There had been a time when he had deliberately called her "cute," just because he knew it annoyed the heck out of her. But things change, and now he would never, not in his wildest dreams, have dared to call her cute.

Because he thought she was.

It's funny what three years of working together on a daily basis, of seeing each other a lot in their free time, of building a good, solid friendship can do to you. They had become so close, their workmates had at some point begun referring to the two of them as "WildeHopps," as if they were a single mammal. One entity in two bodies. Two mammals who were joined at the hip. You can't have one without the other.

Nick would never have thought that there would be a person he just couldn't do without. Heck, he had done without his mother for more than two decades! Judy, on the other paw … They had met less than four years ago, but their relationship had reached a point where the mere idea that she would one day no longer be around him sounded ludicrous to him. Not only did they work together on the force, they also spent most of their free time together, going to the movies or concerts, playing games, watching TV, walking through the park, going to the pub together - just stuff that friends do.

Friends …

The Muzzle Incident, as he usually called it, had taught him a valuable lessen: Most mammals considered foxes to be the scum of the earth. This in turn had convinced him that if he wanted to get something, to achieve something, he had to fight for it, because there was nobody willing to lend him a helping paw. To him, relying on other mammals was futile, so he had rarely done it - he had rather learned to be highly self-sufficient. This of course meant that he had made very few friends over the course of the years. And those few friends he had made had either left him at some point or vanished into obscurity, as most friendships did when you lived on the fringes of society. Some had been arrested, some had turned their backs on hustling, some had turned their backs on _him_ , and some had simply vanished without a trace. Granted, an old friend of his had risen from the dead a few months ago and was currently attending the Zootopia Police Academy to become a cop himself, but apart from that, he had lost sight of virtually every mammal who had meant something to him at one point. The only friendship which had survived over the years had been the one he had with Finnick, who'd found him on the streets when he was twelve and had cared for him ever since. They had been partners-in-crime for the better half of twenty years, partners and friends.

But that was before Nick had become a cop.

Now that they were enemies of sorts, Finnick had disappeared out of Nick's life, too. Nick hadn't seen the fennec fox for two years now, give or take a few months, and if he was honest with himself, it was fine with him. He had moved on, and if others hadn't, it certainly wasn't his problem. If someone asked him whether he regretted this, as some of their workmates had done in the past, his usual reply was that life was too short to ponder on things which you have lost.

But losing Judy …

"Uhm, the third bicycle from the left, there."

"Which one?"

"In front of the cinema, in the bike rack."

"Wrong again!"

It was a thought that ruined his nights on an almost constant basis. The image of Judy, mortally wounded by some villains, lying in an ever-expanding pool of her own blood, looking up to him with eyes glazing over, trying to say her last words but unable to …

Or even worse - much worse -, their plan against Dawn Bellwether backfiring - the sheep shooting him not with a blueberry, but with the Night Howler poison, turning him savage in the process, leading to him ripping Judy's throat out without hesitation or compunction …

This was the point when he usually managed to wake up, gasping, clutching his chest as if it was hurting him.

It was common knowledge that life as a cop was fraught with peril. Both of them had suffered their share of injuries in the line of duty - Judy spent two weeks in hospital after being run over by a fleeing rhino, resulting in a broken paw, several lacerations and contusions and a mild concussion, and Nick had been shot in the right shoulder once - not a dramatic injury, all things considered, but painful and annoying. It had taken him almost half a year before his right arm was as strong again as it had been before. Judy had heavily berated him after the shooting, not because he had been negligent, but because the bullet that had pierced his shoulder blade had been aimed at Judy. He had pushed her out of the way and taken it himself. His behavior may have shocked Judy, but he had remained resolute.

He'd rather die than see her suffer any harm.

They were almost constantly mocking each other with the famous "L"-word. They were constantly telling each other that they loved each other, even in the presence of others. It had long since stopped to cause their workmates to raise their eyebrows in surprise. However, over the course of the last fifteen months, ever since he had been shot, he had become painfully aware of the fact that it was no longer a simple taunt or pun. He did indeed love Judy Hopps, plain and simple as that. He loved talking to her, he loved watching her. Simply being in her presence was enough to make his heart beat faster.

 _I'm pining for a rabbit! Me, Nick Wilde, red fox, scoundrel, ex-con-artist, ex-trickster, police officer, falling for a cute, fluffy little bunny!_

 _Who'd have thunk it?_

The laid-back con artist of old would certainly have tried to woo her, but the police officer of today couldn't even think about it; the mere fact that he had fallen for his partner presented him with an avalanche of problems. The first and most important one was that he had no idea if the feeling was mutual. He knew she liked him, and she always claimed to enjoy the time they spent together. But despite the fact that she usually wore her emotions on her sleeve, he was getting not even the tiniest signal from her that she loved him as much as he loved her. Maybe she did love him, too, but as long as she gave him no further clue, he had to assume that she didn't.

And he couldn't have blamed her. Inter-species relationships may have become increasingly common lately - one of their colleagues from the TUSK team, a wolf, had begun dating a lynx two years ago, for example -, but it was always predator and predator or prey and prey. It was simply unheard-of for a predator wooing prey - at least as far as public perception was concerned.

The truth, however, was completely different, of course.

"What about the balloon?"

"The one the hippo kid is holding? Nope."

During his hustling days, Nick had seen quite a lot of mixed-species relationships, and some of those had even been between predators and prey. But those that had chosen this way of living were invariably forced to spend their lives among the dregs of society. Not surprisingly - the "Nighthowler" case which had taken place more than three years earlier had made a few shortcomings in the public life of Zootopia painfully obvious. Despite all the best efforts from all the right mammals in all the right places, there were still a lot of resentments between predators and prey.

Resentments that even Judy and Nick hadn't been immune to. She had carried around a bottle of fox repellant during her first days on the force. While she hadn't bought it herself - it had been given to her by her father, and she had only accepted the gift to placate him -, she had held onto it and had almost used it on Nick. He, on the other hand, had initially dismissed her as the stereotypical dumb bunny, small, cute, way too emotional, good only at multiplying, and daft as a brush - in short, good enough to be conned, but a complete waste of time in all other regards. He still called her a dumb bunny every now and then, but it was always in jest - she was one of the smartest, most determined mammals he had ever come across. Her promotion to Sergeant almost a year ago was testament to the fact that she was one hell of a capable police officer, despite her diminutive size. She was respected by her peers, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was well on her way to a highly successful career. Some even went so far as to say that she might replace Chief Bogo one day. Who probably wouldn't have minded. Bogo had turned from someone despising the mere idea of having a bunny police officer as a subordinate to one of her staunchest supporters in just a couple of weeks. Or rather, he had his mind changed for him - by Judy.

Nick wasn't quite as popular as Judy was, but he was okay with that. He was respected as a police officer - he had also been promoted to Sergeant, albeit half a year after Judy -, and while most of their workmates frowned upon his cynical attitude and his pessimistic view on the world, they still treated him with respect and even courtesy. And that was good enough for him. He was very content with the place he was at.

And a huge part of why he was content happened to sit next to him in the police cruiser. Judy trusted him completely, he knew that. She had put her life in his paws several times without hesitation. If she still harbored any trust issues with predators on the whole or foxes in particular, which he doubted, she showed none of them towards him. She liked him very much, probably more than any other person in Zootopia. (Her extensive family in Bunnyburrow was a different matter, of course.)

But did she love him? Nick had no way of knowing.

What was her opinion on a possible relationship between predator and prey, between a fox and a bunny anyway? She was a fierce advocate of animal equality, yet going so far as to promote relationships between what would basically have been natural enemies a few millennia ago? Nick simply had no clue what she thought about this.

And then there was the fact that they were professional partners. There were getting along spectacularly well and had always done so, pretty much from Day One, which probably was the chief reason why their union had produced such great results. The two of them were without the shadow of a doubt the most successful crime fighters the city had seen in a long, long time. They had solved cold cases which had lain dormant in the archives for decades. They had unraveled plots and schemes which had eluded the most capable detectives. They had subdued dangerous criminals, most of them much larger and much more powerful than the tiny bunny and the only slightly bigger fox, and brought them to justice. Zootopia was a much safer place, just because the two of them did their part. At least this was the public opinion. They were media darlings and therefore hugely popular. Over time, Judy and Nick had become the ZPD's poster girl and boy - they had in fact appeared on no less than three different posters so far. Prey and predator, woman and man, bunny and fox, working together as a seamless union to fight crime - it was _the_ success story of Zootopia. Wherever they went, there always seemed to be a host of fervent admirers. Nick would never have thought in his wildest dreams that he would one day be asked to put his autograph on books and posters.

Of course he enjoyed it immensely, and he didn't want it to end any time soon.

"Holy hay bale, this is tough! Erm, the scarf Gazelle is wearing, there, on the poster next to the taxi stand?"

"As if I would pick something you are sure to like, Fluff. That's not how the game is played, isn't it?"

"Don't talk to me like you're the expert on the game, Scruffy!"

"Hey, I'm not the mammal who's losing here! And, just in case you forgot, the clock is ticking!"

If he confessed his love to her, and she did not reciprocate, what would happen to their partnership? Would it unravel, or would they be able to continue as a team? As the pessimist he was, a fact that even Judy's best efforts hadn't been able to change, he was quite certain that their work relationship would sour to such a degree that their partnership would come to an untimely end. He knew colleagues who had had a private falling-out and were unable to work together anymore afterwards. This was the one situation he was most keen to avoid. He wanted their partnership to endure for as long as possible. Jeopardizing it by confessing his feelings to her sounded like a very stupid idea to him. He didn't want to lose her, so he never dared to tell her what he was thinking of her.

And then there was the problem commonly called fraternization. Relationships between police officers were strictly forbidden. Apart from the problem of upholding the chain of command and the discipline within the force, a police officer in love with a workmate was often said to become a liability, taking too much care about his or her partner and thus neglecting duty. Or the officer could face total emotional devastation after the loss of a loved one.

With his days as a con fox long behind him, Nick was perfectly fine with following laws and rules, but this one seemed just plain idiotic to him. On paper, laws like these tended to sound great, but in the line of duty, they quickly lost all their appeal and all their sense. Nick had seen the most hardened police officers break down completely after losing their longtime partner, with whom they had not been romantically involved. Friendships between officers were the norm, and losing a close friend often was just as bad as losing a loved one. He hadn't seen any relationships between officers (which wasn't all that surprising, since most of the mammals working in Precinct One were males and had partners from outside the force), but that didn't necessarily mean there weren't any. There were some rumors that one of their colleagues, a tiger named Nero Jackson, was dating a female tiger working in administration. If they were, they were very covert about it. And rightly so - fraternizing was a punishable offense resulting in loss of job and two years in jail. Despite his checkered past, Nick had never set foot inside a prison, and he was determined to keep it that way.

And since that was the case, he had to content himself with watching her do all those cute things that made his brain go slightly fuzzy. Nibbling her lower lip, for example. Which she just did.

"Ooookay, what about the ad next to the Snarlbuck's entrance?" While pointing, she leaned over to quickly look in the rear-view-mirror to check her appearance, trying to tame a few wayward hairs in her fur which had obviously irked her all day.

 _She's doing it again, she simply doesn't see it!_ Nick thought it was hilarious. "You know what? You couldn't be farther from it."

Judy's face fell. "I couldn't?"

"You're looking waaayyy too far into the distance. It's much closer than you think it is."

"Closer." She looked through the windows of their cruiser. However, there were no purple items in their immediate vicinity, which was sure to puzzle her further. Nick was simply relishing this. "Err, Nick, you sure you mean 'purple' and not 'pink?'"

Nick chuckled. "Yes, I am. One hundred percent."

Judy sighed in obvious frustration. "Damn it, Nicholas Piberius Wilde! Why do you always have to make it so darn hard for me?"

Now, Nick laughed out loud. "It's very simple, sweetheart." He grabbed the rear-view-mirror and adjusted it so that she was able to see herself without leaning to the side. "Just watch and learn."

She looked into the mirror. "Uh, what am I looking at, exactly?"

"Why don't you just tell me _what_ you are looking at right now?"

Judy squinted her eyes, then they widened in shock. "NO! Nick, that's unfair! How am I supposed to see _the color of my own eyes_?"

"By looking in the mirror." Nick grinned. "You've done it nine times in the last five minutes alone."

Judy paused, then she grinned sheepishly. "I guess I did. Dumb bunny."

Nick leaned over and patted her shoulder. "No, sly bunny. Devious fox."

She laughed out loud at that. "I should have known you would resort to …"

It was at this very moment that they heard a load roar, and seconds later they saw a small black sports car speed down the road, towards their cruiser. It veered to the side, passing a tiny bus full of lemmings on the right side and dashing past their parking position at what Nick estimated to be at least 90 miles per hour - three times faster than the speed limit in Zootopia.

Words weren't necessary. As Judy powered up the cruiser, Nick activated lights and sirens while speaking into the radio's microphone. "Dispatch, this is One-17. A speeding vehicle just blew by, southbound on Fifth. Commencing pursuit. Over."

" _Copy that, 17_ ," Benjamin Clawhauser, their dispatcher, answered immediately. " _You need backup?_ "

Nick shook his head, despite the fact that Clawhauser wouldn't be able to see it. Judy, in the meantime, had thrown their massive car into a 180 and was now speeding down the wide avenue, following the other vehicle. Despite being the much larger car, its hybrid engines were so powerful that they reached 100 mph in no time at all. The pursuit was officially on. "Negative. Let's see if we can catch that sucker first," Nick concluded.

" _10-4, One-17. Over_."

While the sidewalks may have been rather empty, the street was quite crowded, which forced the driver of the speeding vehicle to change lanes, overtaking slower cars on whichever side wasn't blocked. He didn't seem to be the best of drivers, since his attempt to avoid hitting a huge car, probably driven by a giraffe, led to him demolishing two traffic signs. Nick squinted, trying to make out the license plate. "Dispatch, can you run a 10-28 for us? Car's a black convertible, a Boarsche 911 Cabriolet. Plate number is Papa-Uniform-Sierra Tango-Mike Niner … scrap that, Ben."

" _Say again?_ "

"It's a foreign plate. We'll radio in once we have him. Or her. One-17 out" Nick placed the microphone in its rest and squinted again. "I may be mistaken, but I think this guy's from Gnuganda."

"Are you sure?" Judy asked. "It's still awfully far." The gap between them and the fleeing vehicle was still more than 400 feet.

"I am," Nick said. "Not on the Gnuganda thing, but he's definitely not from around here."

Judy nodded while gunning the accelerator. "Wherever he's from, he's not getting away from us."

They were indeed gaining fast, reducing the lead to little more than 200 feet in mere seconds. Despite Nick's incessant teasing that all bunnies are bad drivers, Judy was easily one of the best drivers he had ever seen, far better than he could ever be. Their cruiser was so huge that Procurement and Logistics had been forced to outfit it with bespoke seats and controls adjusted to bunnies and foxes, just to allow them to sit and work in it properly. But despite this distinct disadvantage, Judy had no problems controlling the cruiser whatsoever. Even the most seasoned officers, most of which were more adapted to the car in terms of size, simply were unable to drive as fast and safe as her. She dodged traffic with ease, helped by the fact that the car's massive bulk and enormously loud sirens were highly effective in clearing their path. The fleeing driver wasn't so lucky. And by the way he was changing lanes at a frantic pace, he knew it, too.

"Ooh, watch it, you moron!" Nick shouted, looking ahead. The fleeing driver had just driven through a red light, narrowly avoiding a collision with an elephant mother and her two children. All of whom were much taller than the car.

"That's the third red light," Judy snarled. "At least 14 endangered pedestrians. Not to mention the other cars. And three traffic signs and two parking meters. We need to take him out, and fast, before mammals die! This is an accident waiting to happen!"

Nick spared a glance at his partner. Her snarl matched her facial expression quite nicely - she was wearing the mother of all scowls. _This is one seriously pissed-off bunny._ He nodded. "One carrot milkshake he'll take a turn to the left soon."

"Why do you think so?"

"Well, he's a foreigner, and … whoopsie!"

The driver, realizing that his pursuers had reduced his lead to less than 50 feet, did indeed make a turn, but one to the _right_.

"Shit!" Judy exclaimed, stepping hard on the brakes, but given their speed, they overshot massively.

"No!" shouted Nick. "Floor it! Take a left over there!" He pointed at the next crossing.

"What? Why? He turned _right_ , Nick!"

"Trust me! He needs to go to the left."

It was obvious that Judy didn't agree with Nick, but she didn't hesitate to follow his suggestion. Not that he had expected her to. Ever since they had hustled Dawn Bellwether, she had always trusted his judgment without hesitation. Although that didn't stop her from complaining. "Make it a cheetah-sized milkshake. No, a _rhino-sized_ one," she said while accelerating again, taking a left turn at the crossing.

"You know where this road is leading?" Nick asked.

Judy made a frown. "Err, the ferry, right?"

"Very good, Carrots! A few more years, and you'll know the city just as well as I do."

Judy snorted. "Yeah, right! I'll never catch up with you!"

Living in Zootopia for more than three, almost four years, had certainly given Judy a pretty solid knowledge of all the important places. But she simply was no match for Nick. Having been born and raised in Zootopia, Nick's knowledge of the place was stuff of legends - most of their workmates claimed that he knew the metropolis better than the back of his paw. He knew all the roads, all the important places, even all the shortcuts. And his track record at guessing where culprits were heading was almost flawless.

He gave her a smile. "Don't sell yourself short here, Fluff! You were perfectly right, the ferry to Aquatica. Which, if you take the Route 34, leads to Deerbrooke County. And from there, you can reach all the other outlying regions."

Judy nodded. "Including Gnuganda."

"He needs to catch the ferry," Nick said, pointing at the watch on the dashboard. "If it's punctual - and it usually is -, it'll leave in less than five minutes. He needs to get there, and fast. That's why he's speeding along like someone set his tail on fire."

Judy grinned. "What would I do without you?"

Nick shrugged. "You'd find some other poor fox to hustle." Both had to chuckle at that.

It took them less than two minutes to reach the port and thus the ferry, which was still attached to the pier. Judy turned their cruiser around and came to a stop next to a truck that probably belonged to elephants, as it was even bigger than their massive cruiser, much bigger. Craning his neck, Nick was able to look down the street through the gap between the driver's cabin and the trailer, still the truck hid their cruiser to perfection. They were facing the street, and Judy let the car idle, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"And sure enough, there he is," Nick said, pointing ahead. Indeed, the convertible they had been chasing came into view, still at considerable speed.

Judy climbed over to his side to have a look herself, leaning into him completely, sending a nice, tingling feeling through his body. "Have I told you today how brilliant you are?" she said.

"No, but you are excused," Nick said with a grin, "what with losing silly games against your favorite fox and some such nonsense."

Judy raised an eyebrow. "You know what, Slick? You can kiss my fluffy ass."

"With pleasure. Do you want me to be tender, or do you want to be clean afterwards?"

Judy, midway through climbing back onto her seat, burst into laughter. She was still laughing when she gave one last burst of acceleration, blocking the path of the convertible.

Nick activated the microphone again, signaling Judy to be quiet. She out one paw on her mouth, still giggling, "Dispatch, One-17 here. We caught the speeder near the Aquatica Ferry. Proceeding with the arrest now. We'll probably need a 10-51. 17 over."

" _Copy that, One-17_ ," Clawhauser said. " _Tow truck's on the way. Dispatch out_."

Nick put down the microphone again, opened his door and jumped down. The heat seemed to envelop him like a very uncomfortable glove immediately. He adjusted his glasses with his left paw while putting his right one near his standard-issue tranquilizer gun, just as regulation dictated. Judy had left the cruiser, too, right at the moment the sport car's side window slid down. What they got to see, however, was something they hadn't expected.

"Well, what do you know? A rabbit," Nick said. "Would you please be so kind and explain to us what you were doing at more than 100 miles per hour within the city limits, sir?"

The male rabbit looked at Nick, who was smiling, then at Judy, who was wearing a frown. He was one or the other side of fifty, and wearing a suit which looked both immaculate and highly expensive. His fur was a light brown, just like his eyes. His whole posture screamed annoyance. He may have been caught red-pawed, but he obviously refused to let it show that he knew. Judy took over. "You tried to catch the ferry, right, sir?"

"Vot is it to you?" He spoke with a very heavy accent.

"Well," Judy said with a very fake casual tone in her voice, "what's it to me? Perhaps it is to me that you have exceeded the speed limit by some 80 miles per hour. Perhaps it is to me that your reckless driving put more than a dozen pedestrians in mortal danger. Perhaps it is to me that you ran over three red lights. Perhaps it is to me that you caused significant damage to public property." With each word, the temperature in her voice seemed to drop by a few degrees.

"Would you please get out of the car, sir?" Nick said pleasantly while opening the door.

When the rabbit didn't respond or make a move, Judy stepped next to Nick, deliberately putting her paw on her gun's handle. With a voice that still surprised Nick, even after all these years - he had never imagined that such a cute bunny could bring forth such a cold voice -, she said: "Please get out of the car, sir. _Now_!"

With a huge sigh, the rabbit got out. He was quite tall, for a rabbit, easily four inches taller than Judy, and the immaculate suit became even more noticeable. He was obviously quite well-off, and if the numerous rings on his paws were any indication, quite happy to make this fact known. "And vot happens now?"

"Well, sir," Nick said, "I would like to see your license and registration, please, if you would be so kind." He gave the rabbit a friendly smile. It had long been established between him and Judy that when dealing with criminals, he would usually be the good cop and she the bad one. Due to his hustling days, Nick had perfected the unctuous tone, the flattering remarks and the innocent look. Judy was great at just being intense. And to most mammals, intense came across as aggressive, sometimes even as angry. There had never been any discussion between them as to who would assume which role. And they both found certain glee in messing with stereotypes. Everybody seemed to expect the predator, the sly, shifty, untrustworthy fox, to be the bad guy, and the prey, the meek, cute, dumb little bunny to be the good guy. Having it the other way around had irritated a lot of mammals, and an irritated criminal is much more likely to make mistakes.

With slow movements, betraying his reluctance, the rabbit took his wallet out of the inside pocket of his suit, handing it to Nick, who opened the wallet with deft digits, quickly finding both the driving license and the registration certificate. Returning the wallet and looking at the documents, he said in his most pleasant voice: "So, you are Tobias Alfons Mümmelmann, from Pusemuckel, Gnuganda, is that right?" The rabbit nodded. "And this is your car?"

The rabbit looked over at the ferry, which had just departed the pier. Anger crept both into his voice and his posture. "It is," he literally spat. "I hope you are not zinking zat I stole it." He glared at Nick.

"No, not at all. Merely appreciating." Nick had never been a real car enthusiast, since for most of his life he neither had the money to buy a car nor the license to drive one. Still, he knew a nice ride when he saw one. "A Boarsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet. Bet it cost you a fortune."

"Actually not, Officer. Zis is my company car. I work for ze Boarsche AG." He puffed his chest, in a blatant attempt to make himself look bigger.

Judy was obviously and decidedly unimpressed. "You do? What, at the production line?"

A look of outrage crossed the culprit's face. "I am ze CEO," he almost shouted with an air of annoyance.

Nick gave a low whistle while looking at the car again, admiring its smooth curves. To him, it was a real shame that during his wild flight, the rabbit had managed to severely damage the car. There were scratches in the paint and several dents along the bumper, the right side mirror was missing - even one of the headlights was smashed completely. The damage was so extensive, it came as a surprise to Nick that the airbags hadn't triggered."Nice," he said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

Judy took over, her voice at her most menacing while still managing to wear a smile. "Your ride may be nice, but where it is going, its looks are not going to help."

The rabbit turned to fully face her. "I beg your pardon?"

"You know," Judy said, dropping the smile, "your car is going to be impounded. And you, sir, are under arrest."

What little color had been left in the face of the rabbit seemed to vanish at once - he became quite pale under his fur. "You are going to … a-arrest me?"

"Oh, yes," Judy continued harshly. For a fleeting second, Nick was quite glad he wasn't on the receiving end of the tongue-lashing the poor rabbit was about to receive - he'd been there a few times, and those weren't memories he particularly cherished. "Speeding, reckless driving, damage to public property, reckless endangerment of numerous pedestrians, and resisting arrest. I think this warrants a warrant. You, sir, are going to jail, and believe me, the streets will be a much safer place because of it!"

"You cannot be serious," the rabbit shouted. "Do you know who I am?"

Judy took the pawcuffs from her utility belt and approached the rabbit. "I don't want to know who you are, because I couldn't care less. As far as I'm concerned, you are little more than a road hog who needs to be taken off the streets."

The rabbit took a little half-step back. Nick deliberately moved two steps to the right to block the most obvious escape route. Seeing this, the rabbit, thankfully, visibly deflated, showing no more signs of resistance. Nick would have hated to give chase in a weather like this. When Judy pawcuffed him, she said: "You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer question. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right …"

She was suddenly cut off by the rabbit sneezing. Once, twice, three times. Violently.

"Gesundheit," Nick said, raising an eyebrow. This was a sight he had certainly never seen before. Working with Judy for three years had given him a pretty good idea what was normal for a rabbit and what was not. Hell, she had even brought him to visit her family's farm in Bunnyburrow, several times even. And despite a somewhat rocky start - her father had not been particularly partial to foxes, to put it mildly -, by now, he and her parents were on first-name-terms, and their countless children just loved to play with "Unca Nicky." The concerns about those trips he had felt at one point had long since become a thing of the past.

And during all these times, he could not remember seeing a rabbit sneeze like that. He had seen three of Judy's sisters come down with a cold, and that was it. This was something else. And while he thought about it, he realized that he had never seen a rabbit seriously ill. To him, rabbits were just a bunch of abnormally healthy mammals. It was probably all down to the good, organic food.

"Vielen Dank," the rabbit countered. "Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass Sie Gnugandisch können."

Nick had to smile at that. After having dropped out of school before he had turned twelve, he did have little in terms of formal education, but living on the streets for twenty years had given him a lot of knowledge you don't necessarily get in school. This gave him a solid grasp on most common languages. Usually he was able to understand what had been said to him, but his skills were insufficient to really converse in a foreign language. "Sorry, but the term 'Gesundheit' is used in English, too. My Gnugandan is, how shall I put it, quite lackluster."

"Oh. Vot a pity."

Judy continued to read the rabbit his rights, and afterwards they dumped him unceremoniously in the back of their cruiser.

* * *

"And," Nick grabbed the last paper out of the printer's slot, "this," he took a pen from his desk, "was," he signed the paper with a flourish, "that." He finally placed the paper on the desktop, next to a sizeable stack of similar pieces of paper.

"Are you done?" Judy asked from her desk. Her eyes had followed his every move. One of the nails on her left paw kept scratching an empty Styrofoam cup which at one point had contained a carrot milkshake - Nick had lost their bet, after all.

"Yeah, finally! Why is it that every time we arrest some jerk, we always have this bureaucratic nonsense to deal with? I mean, six reports in quadruplicate? Gimme a break!"

Judy gave a small smile and threw the empty cup in the trashcan while walking over to sign the last report as well. Another thing they had established long ago was that it usually was up to Nick to write the reports. Although Nick liked to complain about filling out forms, when it came to dealing with "bureaucratic nonsense," he was a natural. It usually took him less than half the time it took Judy to complete a report; Judy was a stickler for details and way too pedantic, whereas Nick simply had the phrasing, the tone and the delivery down pat. His reports were succinct and to-the-point, a textbook example of efficiency - as many words as necessary, but not one word to much. Much unlike is usual manner of speaking. Placing the signed piece of paper on the stack, she said: "That's the way it is, Nick."

"I know." He finally looked at her, a weary expression on his face. "And you know what's even worse? I'm pretty sure this bunny is leaving the building as we speak, returning home as if nothing happened."

"You think so?" She sat down on her uncomfortable chair again. Procurement and Logistics had never been able to provide her with an office chair suited for her size and body structure.

"Of course, Carrots! He's a millionaire. I don't think this building's able to hold him without a proper arrest warrant. I'm certain he can pay the bail out of one of his petty cash deposit." He sighed. "The only positive thing I see in this is that he is without his car _and_ his license."

"Thanks to you, Nick. I may have lost him."

He smiled. "That's what partners are for, right?"

She nodded vigorously. "Right."

He looked at the watch. "Hey, Carrots, still more than three hours to go."

"Yes, I know, Nick." She got up. "Well, let's get cracking."

Right at this moment, as if on cue, an enormous baritone seemed to fill the whole huge bureau. "Hopps! Wilde! My office! Now!"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Oh, how I have missed the dulcet tones of our beloved Chief."

"Shush!" Judy said. "He might hear you!" They got up from their respective chairs and left their shared cubicle to walk down to their superior's office. Nick couldn't help but feel an awful sense of foreboding, which was most certainly shared by his much more emotional partner.

They had good reasons to be wary. If Judy came across as intense, Adrian Bogo came across as simply menacing. It didn't matter if he wanted to reprimand you for having screwed up or commend you for having done a perfect job, he always sounded as if he was about to rip your head off. Everything about the Chief was big. Even for a cape buffalo he was tall, underlined by the fact that his love for working-out had left him with muscles threatening to rip his uniform to shreds. And his voice was able to fill a cathedral, even when he was whispering. He was a force of nature - his presence alone was able to instill terror in a lot of criminals. Even his subordinates weren't immune to those feelings, which is why both Nick and Judy approached the door with considerable trepidation.

Judy knocked, and they heard Bogo shout: "Enter!" She opened the door and entered the office to stand in front of their bosses' desk. Both flashed a salute which Bogo countered with a dismissive gesture.

"At ease, Sergeants. Have a seat." They both climbed into the chair which was so big that both of them were able to sit in it at the same time. "Clawhauser told me you apprehended a street racer."

"Sir," Judy began, "technically he was no street racer, merely a speeding driver."

"A distinction without a difference, Hopps. Dangerous lunatics, the lot of them."

"I agree, sir."

Bogo heaved I sigh. "Unfortunately, we had to release him. His company has bailed him out."

"Why am I not surprised, sir?" Nick said, smiling. "Still, he is without his license. And his ride. A Boarsche 911. Too bad you won't fit in it, Chief." The Chief's love for cars was well known in Precinct One.

If Nick had expected Bogo to smile, he was sorely disappointed. "I take it your patrol was uneventful, apart from chasing said lunatic through Savanna Central," the Chief said matter-of-factly.

Now Judy sighed. "That, sir, is an understatement."

Bogo shrugged. "As annoying as this heat wave is, it seems to have sucked the energy out of the criminals. Crime rate is at an all-time low. We should be thankful for that."

"We are, sir. It's just that these patrols are so … _boring_!"

Now Bogo smiled. "I know. I've been in your shoes once, too, you know."

Nick couldn't help himself. "I doubt it, sir. I don't think you would fit into one of our boots."

Bogo merely held his smile, and Nick fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. Their Chief was unusually kind and friendly. His sense of foreboding grew. Something was off, but he wasn't able to put his digit on it yet.

As if responding to Nick's unspoken thoughts, Bogo said: "You're probably asking yourself now why I have called you into my office, right?"

Judy and Nick exchanged glances. "The thought had crossed our minds, yes," Judy said, failing spectacularly at sounding casual - her tone and her shaky voice betrayed her nervousness.

Bogo picked up a few pieces of paper from his desk, "I wanted to ask you a question. How would you feel about being reassigned to Homicide Squad?" He handed them the pieces of paper. "Homicide asked for two additional officers. In the last five years, the number of murders in this city has risen by 37 percent, and they need every able-bodied officer they can lay their hooves on. Especially smaller mammals. Most officers in Homicide are just too big to really comb through a crime scene without disturbing or destroying half of the evidence in the process." He made a pause. "The leader of Homicide Squad, Major Mastiff, specifically asked for _you_."

"Us?" Judy looked up from the papers. "Why?"

Bogo got up from his chair to walk over to his window. Looking out of it, not even looking at them anymore, he said: "You two have the necessary qualifications. You have an almost flawless track record. Your detective work is outstanding. You are without the shadow of a doubt the most successful crime fighters in the ZPD at this point in time. Homicide needs the best. Major Mastiff accepts nothing less but the best. And you happen to be the best."

Nick and Judy just stared at his back, open-mouthed, completely flabbergasted. It was rare for Bogo to heap praise on someone for just doing their job, and they had certainly not heard him praising someone to the skies, like he had just done. Bogo continued: "I do not say this lightly. Working for Homicide is a huge commitment. They call for ungodly hours, working overtime, working under strenuous circumstances. You will face grisly sights and even worse stories. Things may happen that will make you wish you never accepted the jobs in the first place. But both the Major and I are convinced that you are the right mammals for the job. You have proven countless times that you have what it takes to solve the grossest of crimes. But you need to be in it with all of your heart and soul. Half-assed work will get you nowhere in Homicide."

Nick looked at Judy, wordlessly mouthing: " _Who is this?_ "

Judy nodded, countering just as silently: " _And what has he done with the Chief?_ "

Bogo, unaware of their exchange, made a pause and sighed. "I want to be frank with you. When Mayor Lionheart assigned you to Precinct One, Hopps, I thought you were in way over your head. 'No bunny could ever become a cop, much less a good one,' I thought. And I certainly treated you accordingly during your first months of service, or rather, I mistreated you. I let you run the proverbial gauntlet, and believe me when I say that I'm very sorry that I did. It was a mistake on my part, a mistake you taught me never to make again. You proved me wrong. Time and time again, you proved me wrong. The same goes for you, Wilde. If all foxes were as trustworthy, hard-working and capable as you, your species would not be forced to face so much ridicule and slander. The fact of the matter is, you two are the best officers on my roster. You are so good in fact that you're way too valuable to solve petty theft and work on patrol duty. No, I think you'll do fine in Homicide. _If_ you decide that this is the future career path for you."

Nick was the first to regain the ability to use his vocal cords again, and to his own surprise, no sarcastic remark wanted to come out. Instead he said, like the biggest ass-kisser: "We are deeply honored, Chief."

Bogo sat back down, facing them with his stony gaze. Even when he was saying words of encouragement in something closely resembling a friendly manner, he still came across as menacing. "So, take your time reading this. I'm in no hurry."

Both Judy and Nick lowered their heads and started perusing the papers again. It took less than a minute for Judy to speak up again. "Uh, sir, it says here that the request is for two Lieutenants."

"I know," Bogo said simply.

"But sir, we are …"

Bogo cut her short. "I know what you are, but I don't care."

Now Nick piped in: "Does that mean …"

Bogo interrupted him, too. "What can this possibly mean, Wilde? It means that whoever holds the positions offered here will hold the ranks of Lieutenant."

Judy gasped. "But sir, rules and regulations state that between two promotions, a period of at least …"

Again, Bogo didn't allow her to finish her thought. "Just so you know, Hopps, I promote on skill alone, not on some rules and regulations which don't mean squat on the streets. I need the mammals best capable for the given jobs, and if that means I have to promote somebody early, I do. And should somebody try to remind me that there are certain rules and regulations which don't allow me to do this, I remind this somebody that I don't care. I _am_ the Chief of Police, last time I checked, and promoting or demoting officers is my prerogative. Of course, the Mayor or the city council could overrule me, but they never did and they never will. Which means I can run this place pretty much as I see fit."

"So if we apply," Nick said, trying his hardest to sound casually, "we are promoted to Lieutenants."

"You are."

"Automatically?"

"Yes."

Nick turned to Judy. "Could I borrow your carrot pen, please?"

After both had signed their respective application forms, Bogo stood up and rounded his table. Both Nick and Judy got off their chair, and suddenly Bogo knelt down and offered both of them a pawshake. Nick had often shaken the Chief's hoof, but now, for the first time ever, he couldn't help feeling that this was not the mere pawshake between a superior and his subordinates. This was a pawshake between kindred spirits. Deep down inside, they were all just crime fighters, regardless of rank, and his posture made it very clear that Bogo was acknowledging this fact right now. Both of them, and Nick in particular, had come a long way, and it seemed that finally, FINALLY, they had really arrived. "Thank you very much for this opportunity," Nick said, an honest smile on his face. "We will give our very best, Chief."

"I cannot ask for more, Wilde," Bogo said, nodding. "But keep in mind that I will not accept anything less. Nor does Major Mastiff."

"Duly noted."

Bogo stood up again. "Well, seeing as there is not much going on out there, and seeing that you have amassed quite a lot of overtime to use up, why don't you just take the rest of the day off? Remember the PR event on Monday."

Nick looked down at Judy, who shrugged. "I forgot to tell you. We will visit the Meadowlands Elementary School for the usual Q and A gig."

"Ah. Obnoxious kids, nosy parents and demotivated teachers." Nick couldn't help grinning. "I love it!"

"Nick," Judy warned him.

"Don't worry, Carrots, I will be my usual, charming self."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

Bogo rolled his eyes. "If there's nothing else, you are dismissed."

"Thank you, sir," Judy said with just the kind of smile that made the heat rise within Nick. He could literally feel his ears being consumed by fire. "Have a nice weekend."

"You too, Hopps, Wilde."

They saluted the Chief and left his office, saying nothing. It wasn't until they were well out of the buffaloes' earshot that they turned towards each other, both saying the same word at exactly the same moment: "Wow!" Both burst out into laughter.

"Did this just really happen?" Judy asked, incredulity garnishing her voice.

"It certainly seems so." Nick scratched the back of his head. "Although I have to admit, I have never heard the Chief heap so much praise on so few people over such a short period of time." He looked back at the office door they had just walked through. "The old softy!"

Judy grinned at that. "And what do you know, with the extra money you will earn, you might finally be able to leave the dumpster."

He raised an eyebrow. "The dumpster? Carrots, this is my _home_ you speak of!"

"And it's the worst collection of garbage I ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes upon."

"Says the bunny who lives in a glorified shoe box."

She gave him a shove. "Hey, I like it there!"

"Sure. What's not to like? I simply adore the greasy walls, I love the rickety bed, and I totally dig your crazy neighbors." He made a pause. "So, seeing that quitting time's early today, what do we do with the rest of the evening?"

"Movie Night!" she announced, way too loudly, considering the fact that Nick was standing right next to her.

Nick winced. "Okay, fine with me. I assume we go to the, ahem, 'dumpster' of mine."

"Of course, seeing that I don't own a TV set. Hey, what do you say? I get to pick the movies, you get to pick the snacks."

He made a face. "I feel a nightmare coming up."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Bunny flick after bunny flick. I'll certainly pass out at one point or another."

* * *

 **If you think this chapter's leaning towards pointless, please bear with me. I know it's quite the slow start, but at least one aspect of this chapters' content is crucial to the plot, as you will find out later.**

 **Chief Bogo was given the first name of Adrian in the awesome fanfiction story "Zootopia - In the Days That Followed" by ayziks - check it out! I liked it, so I use it, too.**

 **Speaking of Bogo: If you think that he comes across as too darn mellow here, well, any guy who secretly harbors a soft spot for Gazelle sure has to have a soft core. And I'll give the big old softy some background story in one of the following chapters to put meat on his bones.**

 **Now, the OC, Tobias Alfons Mümmelmann. Tobias and Alfons are perfectly normal German first names. The family name actually is a pun on rabbits; "mümmeln" is the German word for "to nibble," so a "Mümmelmann" is "the guy who nibbles," a quite common German term of endearment for bunnies. And the person itself, well, he's little more than me poking a bit of light fun at Germans and their pronunciation problems when speaking English - just listen to Arnold Schwarzenegger (okay, he's Austrian, but German's his native tongue). And before you accuse me of racial abuse, remember that I'm German, too. And yes, even zose German guys who know zeir English tend to speak like zat, myself certainly not excluded!**

 **And just so you know, in the movie, when Judy explains to Nick that she's from Bunnyburrow, the sentence she uses is: "** ** _Podunk is in Deerbrooke County. I grew up in Bunnyburrow_** **.". In the German dub, the sentence becomes: "** ** _Pusemuckel ist in Gnuganda. Ich bin in Nageria aufgewachsen_** **." "Pusemuckel" is the German word for "Podunk," and "Deerbrooke County" becomes "Gnuganda," hence the names. In my stories, Gnuganda is the name for my version of Germany.**

 **Oh, and the German sentence "Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass Sie Gnugandisch können" translates to: "I wouldn't have thought you knew Gnugandan," with Gnugandan of course being my version of the German language.**

 **And that's about it! The next chapter's going to be quite short, but the ones following after that will be much longer. As compensation, the next chapter will be up really soon!**

 **Thanks for reading, and please send me your reviews!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	2. Chapter Two - When Fatigue Sets In

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **So there I was, having just published the first chapter of my very first fanfiction story, thinking to myself: "Well, if only one or two guys like it, I'd be a content old man."**

 **Now, about 24 hours later, I am looking at one encouraging review, 10 favorites, and 20 followers!**

 **Never, not in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined such a response. Since finding out that so many of you like what I'm doing, I have a constant feeling of walking on clouds. Awesome!**

 **Thank you, Madeofsteel, for your supportive words. You are the chief reason why I typed my fingers raw today to present you with the next chapter of "Now Your Nightmare Comes to Life."**

 **The upcoming chapter is really short, one of the shortest chapters I have ever written. And you may find at one point that it is little more than a filler - I need to gap a few days during which nothing much happens. The third chapter, however, is going to be both very long and very dramatic. It is, in a manner of speaking, the backbone of the whole story. Sadly, the workload I have at the moment makes it difficult for me to say when the next chapter will be complete. I hope I can finish it within next week, but it may take me significantly longer.**

 **Speaking of longer, when I was done writing the first chapter, I thought that it was a good mid-sized thing, a nice start. And then, when I looked at the stats, I did a double-take:**

 ** _10,000 words?!_** **(Edit: After the revision, it's more than 11,000 words now. And to me, that's a medium-sized chapter by now. In "Wound," I wrote a chapter that's almost 18,000 words long …)**

 **Damn, this isn't just some short story! I'm in the middle of writing a freakin'** ** _novel_** **! Without realizing it!**

 **Well, being brief has never been a particular forte of mine. Mea culpa!**

 **So, quit yapping, Jens, and give 'em hell!**

 **I still don't own Zootopia. And I don't think that's bound to change any time soon.**

* * *

Chapter Two

 **When Fatigue Sets In**

 _There is no escape and that's for sure._

Metallica: "Seek and Destroy" (Written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, from the album "Kill 'Em All," Megaforce, 1983)

* * *

On Sunday, a colossal thunderstorm with torrential downpour had ravaged Zootopia. Smaller mammals like mice, shrews, or lemmings, had to stay indoors, lest the rain would have swept them away. Basements filled up, and lightning struck four tall buildings, setting two of them ablaze. It was at moments like these that Nick was glad that he wasn't working for the fire department. They had been forced to work around the clock to deal with all the big and small problems a violent storm like this could cause.

The good news about this was that the heat wave was finally over. Temperatures had dropped by some 50 degrees across the board. There was no reason anymore to feel warm. But Nick felt warm regardless.

Very warm.

That's what playing tag with 24 exuberant children can do to you when you are in your mid-thirties.

The PR event at Meadowlands Elementary had been running surprisingly smooth up to that point. The children had been mellow, the parents not overly intrusive and the teachers more than happy to have two of the highest decorated police officers in the ZPD visiting their school. For more than six hours they had gone from classroom to classroom, giving the children some pep talk, reminding them what and what not to do when you are a child, and answering the questions of children, parents and teachers alike. And finally, after school had ended for the day, several children had asked them if they wanted to play tag with them.

To his surprise, Judy had flatly refused to play with them. Which wouldn't have been much of a problem, but seeing the disappointment in the young cheetah's face who had mustered up enough courage to ask them, Nick had felt compelled to take Judy's spot. Which was a first. It usually was Judy's job to play with the little ones while he answered final questions from curious parents.

Not that he really regretted it. Those bouts of questions usually were the worst. Despite everything that had happened over the course of the last few years, despite their high profile, even despite their universal popularity - it was quite obvious that a lot of citizens still had problems with the mere concept of prey and predator working together as a seamless unit, so a lot of questions circled around this precise topic.

" _Wouldn't a predator-predator duo be better suited to work together?_ "

" _Don't you consider it risky to work with such a tiny bunny? Well, I mean, you're a fox, right?_ "

" _Isn't your partner afraid of you?_ "

" _Don't you think it's kind of a hazard to work with mammals ten times your size?_ "

" _Has an elephant ever tried to sit down on you?_ "

Dispelling all those doubts tended to be annoying, which is why part of him was quite glad that this particular cup was taken away from him today. Still, running after kits bigger than him had soon proved to be one heck of a challenge. Especially since nature had provided him with the worst of all disadvantages: a tail.

Out of the twelve times the children had managed to tag him, his tail had been their target no less than ten times. It was big, it was fluffy, and some of its movement was completely involuntary - sometimes he just wasn't able to stop it wagging or twitching. All this meant that it was very easy to grab. Which the children had been very fast to realize.

This is why after some twenty minutes of playing tag, he literally was on his last legs. Despite going for a lengthy run every other day to keep in shape, he was ill-prepared for all those short sprints required from him to avoid being tagged. Because of this, he felt stiff and sore in places where he didn't even know he had places.

He stopped and held up a hand, panting. "Please, have mercy with a poor old officer!"

The children had to laugh at that. "You're not that old," a tiny sheep said. "My mother's much older."

"Is she, now?"

"Yes, she is, um, eleventy-three, I think."

"Uhuh." _What the heck does that even mean? 31? 34? No idea. Better to not ask her, she probably doesn't know either._

"And my father is twenty, er, nine. Yeah, twenty-nine," said the cheetah who had invited them to play.

"That's not too old," Nick said conversationally. "I'm 36."

Predictably enough, that elicited a loud "Oooh!" from the children.

On the one paw, he loved kits. He loved to play with them, he loved to talk to them, and sometimes he even loved to just listen to them. And when the mood struck him, he still enjoyed it to mess with their heads - that was one part of his former life that would probably never die.

On the other paw, he wasn't exactly in the mood for small-talk with seven-year-old children at that particular moment.

Because his partner's behavior struck him as extremely odd.

And whenever something struck him as odd, he started to become curious.

And when this happened, he usually didn't rest until he had unraveled the mystery.

He was a police officer, after all.

He looked over at Judy, who was standing next to their enormous police cruiser, which really dwarfed her. The tires alone were bigger than she was. She was talking to some of the parents, and her features didn't look like she was in any sort of trouble over the questions. But something about her didn't feel quite right.

First, she had flatly refused to play with the kits, which was completely out of the common for her. Second, her contributions to their discussions in the different classes had slowly ebbed up - when they visited the sixth and final class, she had said virtually nothing at all, leaving all the work for him. Third, something about her posture looked just … _wrong_.

 _She's tired. She's dead on her feet._

Indeed, her half-closed eyes and slumped shoulders left no other explanation.

This realization came as a surprise to him. She had told him in the morning that she had slept like a log, feeling full of pent-up energy.

This energy had obviously gone missing somewhere along the way into afternoon.

Was she ill? Had she caught a bug from this Gnugandan bunny?

It certainly looked that way.

Upon arriving at this conclusion, he pulled his phone out of his inner pocket and looked at it as if he had just received a message, one of the oldest tricks in the book. He told the children that he was done with running for today, waved them goodbye and walked over to his partner.

"Sergeant Hopps, it's time for us to return to base," he told her in his most formal voice. This wasn't exactly true, but it was a fact that they could have closed up shop two hours earlier, just as it always was with these PR gigs. Not that they had ever done so - Judy usually was the one responsible for them overstaying their welcome.

She gave him a frown, looking at her wristwatch. "Already?"

He nodded. "Got a text from Chief Bogo," he was lying easily. "We gotta go, and we gotta go now."

She nodded, and the two of them made their farewells. Before Judy was able to climb into the cruiser, however, Nick had snatched the keys from her. She narrowed her eyes, but then her features softened, and she went over to the other side of the cruiser to ride shotgun without protest.

They had hardly closed the doors when she gave a sigh and closed her eyes. "There was no text from Bogo, right?"

"How do you know?"

"He never writes messages. He prefers using the phone to shout you to pieces." She made a pause. "Thank you, Nick."

"No problem. You're tired, right?"

She nodded slowly. "I feel absolutely drained." She made a funny sound, something between a snort and laughter. "I don't know why. I slept really well, I had no problems getting up, I felt fine for most of the time. But after the fourth class, I started feeling tired."

"Yeah, I noticed. I had to do all the work by myself."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I'm just feeling a bit off-color right now."

In the meantime Nick had started their cruiser and was in the process of leaving the parking lot and merging with traffic. "Perhaps you caught the flu from our Gnugandan speeder."

She shrugged. "I guess that's a possibility. The problem is, I've never been ill."

"Never?"

"Never."

"Not even a teeny-weeny stuffed-up nose?"

Judy had to grin at that. "And yet again you give proof of the fact that you are completely clueless when it comes to rabbits."

He gave her a frown. "Why?"

"Because if my nose should ever stuff up, you can put me six feet under a few minutes later."

"Huh?"

"Rabbits are obligate nasal breathers. We cannot breath through our mouths if our lives depended on it. Stuff my nose, and I will suffocate."

"Really? I had no idea."

She shrugged. "Most mammals haven't."

"But now I have." He grinned. "Which just goes to show that you _can_ teach an old fox new tricks."

"Come on, you're not that old."

He gave her a hugely exaggerated groan. "After what the kits put me through, I feel positively _ancient_."

"Sissy!" They both shared a brief laugh. The laughter ended in a sneeze from Judy.

Nick looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Should I take you home?"

She nodded, then she turned her head and looked at him. "Thanks for taking care for me."

"Well, that's what we do at the ZPD," he said in his most casual voice.

She rolled her eyes. "No, seriously, thank you."

He gave her his customary smirk. "You're welcome. Anything for my little fluff-butt."

" _Your_ little fluff-butt? I wasn't aware that you owned me."

And just like that, something in him died.

 _She will never be yours, you dolt!_

It took him all the years of experience as a hustler to not let his disappointment show. Instead he said, matter-of-factly: "But you are _my_ partner with the fluffy butt."

Judy nodded. "That I am."

"I will take you home, then I'll return to the station and clock both of us out. And nobody will be any the wiser."

Judy shrugged. "As long as the work gets done, Bogo doesn't care anyway."

"You're probably right."

They spent the rest of their journey in companionable silence. Upon reaching her apartment block, Nick asked: "Will I see you tomorrow?"

She gave him a frown. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe you'll want to call in sick."

Her frown deepened. "How do you call in sick?" In response to his look, she added: "Like I said, I've never been ill before."

Nick shrugged. "Just call the ZPD, and tell them you cannot go to work. And you need to go to the doctor."

"Ah." She grinned. "It seems that you can also teach an old bunny new tricks."

"Come on, you're not that old," he countered, mirroring her words from before. But when glancing at her, he couldn't help feeling that she looked twenty years older than she actually was. Right now, she could have been her mother's sister. "Promise me you'll go to the doctor anyway, even if you feel well enough to go to work."

She nodded. "If I don't feel better by tomorrow morning, I will. Thanks again, Nick." With this, she opened the door of their cruiser, got out and slammed the door shut.

Nick looked after her as she climbed the stairs leading into her apartment block. She moved as if she was carrying half of Zootopia on her back.

 _I sure hope she's okay._

* * *

 **Yes, rabbits really are obligate nasal breathers. While it is anatomically possible for them to breathe through their mouths, it usually is the last thing they do before they die. Until they're but an inch from death, they will always breathe through their noses. Which is why I always have to chuckle when I read in one of the fanfiction stories that Judy performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Nick, or vice versa. It simply will not work. But no, this is in no way crucial to the plot. Just one of the strange facts of life.**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	3. Chapter Three - The Absent Officer

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Sometimes I am really afraid of me.**

 **I thought the next chapter would take me days.**

 **It took me about five hours.**

 **I guess this is what's called writing mania.**

 **(I admit, this chapter is way shorter than I thought it would be, still I think it's as complete as it can be.)**

 **But you really forced me into this! Less than 48 hours after I released the first chapter, I am looking at almost 700 views, two reviews, 14 favorites and 26 followers.**

 **As our favorite cheetah would say: "O. M. Goodness!"**

 **Many heartfelt thanks to RemedyToEnnui for the review. Still more encouragement … just what I need!**

 **And now, for the promised drama…**

 **I don't even know the people who own Disney, which in turn owns Zootopia.**

* * *

Chapter Three

 **The Absent Officer**

 _And when the times start looking good, it never seems to fail: You bring me bad news._

Gary Moore: "Bad News" (Written by Gary Moore, from the album "Dirty Fingers," Jet, 1984)

* * *

The alarm clock went off at 5:30, but there was no reaction to its annoying beep from the mammal lying in bed next to it. The small animal didn't even stir.

"HEY, RABBIT, TURN THAT DAMN ALARM OFF!"

"STOP HOLLERING, PRONK! OTHER MAMMALS ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!"

"I'M JUST TRYING TO TELL THE RABBIT TO TURN THAT FUCKIN' ALARM OFF!"

"YEAH, BUT I'D RATHER YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP!"

" _YOU_ SHUT UP!"

"NO, _YOU_ SHUT UP!"

At some point during this moderate exchange, the rabbit did indeed stir. Slowly. Very slowly. Everything was still pitch black. This struck Judy Hopps as odd - the sun rises so early in July, she should have been able to at least make out the surroundings of her room. She tried to open her eyes again.

Nope. Still black.

She heard her neighbors going at each other again. She also heard her alarm clock give its loud wake-up signal.

And she had to strain her ears to do it.

 _Strange_ , she thought. _I'm a rabbit. My hearing's supposed to be off the charts._

She tried to move towards her alarm clock to turn it off, only to find out that every movement was a struggle. Her arms felt leaden, and the effort left her completely out of breath.

 _Damn, I really must be coming down with some illness! Hard!_

 _Well, better call in sick._

 _Now, where's my phone?_

The phone was at its usual place, the charging tray on the window sill. She tried her hardest to stand up, but her body seemed to be unwilling to respond. Her whole head felt as if it was swollen to twice its size.

 _Wait. My head?_

She tried to open her eyes yet again.

Only to be met with the same blackness she had seen before.

And all of a sudden, in a rush of panic, she knew what was going on.

Every rabbit knew these symptoms.

 _You forgot your annual vaccination appointment!_

She tried to call for help, but she didn't have enough air left to scream. All she managed was a weak rasp which, unfortunately, the neighbors couldn't hear.

 _So this is it_ , she thought with frightening clarity. _This is how I'm going to die. Alone. In a shoebox of a room, on a rickety bed, unbeknownst to my crazy neighbors._

She tried to scream for help again, but the effort alone made her dizzy.

She was going to die, very soon.

And there was nothing she was able to do about it.

* * *

With a sigh, Nick pocketed his smartphone and walked into the small café. He had waited for almost a quarter of an hour, but Judy had not joined him.

This wasn't just highly unusual, it had never happened before. Judy was a stickler for punctuality; being late and Judy just were two things that did not go together. Meaning if she hadn't come now, she probably wouldn't at all.

She had probably called in sick - there simply was no other explanation.

The strange thing was, she hadn't picked up her phone to return his call. Three times.

And _that_ was completely unheard-of.

When he left the café again after buying his usual mug of coffee-to-go and two blueberry bagels, he tried to phone her again, to no avail. Shrugging, he walked across the street, past the two remaining blocks to reach Precinct One, the ZPD headquarters for City Center.

Stepping through the revolving door, his eyes fell on the accustomed sight of Benjamin Clawhauser, the portly cheetah working both as dispatcher and receptionist. Clawhauser raised his right paw in greeting while stuffing his face with a glaced doughnut (with sprinkles) with his other paw. Nick walked over to him.

"Hey, Ben, how's it hanging?"

"Hi, Nick! Can you believe it?"

"No, uh, what?"

Clawhauser pointed at the nearly empty box of doughnuts standing on the counter in front of him. "Prices for doughnuts have risen by a quarter dollar across the board."

Nick shook his head, trying his hardest to hide his amusement. "It'll be the death of you yet, Spots." There was just the tiniest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Probably. Hey, where's this lovely bunny of yours?"

Now, Nick heaved a sigh, being reminded of her remark from the day before. "One, she's my partner, not my bunny. Two, she's probably in bed. She wanted to call in sick today. Guess she caught the flu last week. She was on her last legs yesterday. Did she phone in yet?"

"Er, no."

Nick made a frown. "Not? Strange. She's not answering her phone either."

"Should I try to call her?"

"Yeah, you better."

Clawhauser picked up the phone and dialed Judy's number. After waiting for one minute, he hung up again. "Huh, she didn't answer."

Nick looked at his watch. "I think I should go and look after her."

"No," Clawhauser said. "Roll call's in five minutes. She's probably fine. Maybe she just forgot to call in sick and went to the doctor without it, and her phone's still at home."

Nick nodded, but thought it highly unlikely that she would be so negligent to both forget to call in sick and leave her phone at her apartment. Yet at this moment, there was nothing much he could do about it. Saying his farewells, he left Clawhauser and walked over to Briefing Room A, otherwise known as the Bullpen.

Upon entering, he was met with the usual mayhem that was the officers of Precinct One. Frederick Delgato, the lion, and Markus Grizzoli, who was a polar bear, were currently engaged in some sort of tug-o-war over what looked like a rather grainy photo. Patrick Johnson, another lion, tried his hardest to entertain his fellow officers with the tale of an arrest, but according to the looks on the faces of the officers standing nearby, he was the only one to find it amusing. Everybody else was chatting. Nick greeted them in his usual, laid-back fashion, then he walked over to his customary chair in the front row.

Brian McHorn, the rhino sitting next to him, lowered today's newspaper he had been reading. "Hey, Nick, where's this over-energetic partner of yours?"

Nick gave him a smile. "I think she's at home in bed. She probably came down with the flu or something."

McHorn gave a frown. "But she didn't call in sick."

"How do you know?" Out of the corner of an eye, Nick started eyeing the newspaper. For a fleeting second, he had the impression of having just seen a face he knew.

"Ben would have told me. I'm the guy responsible for writing get-well cards in Precinct One."

"You are? I didn't know."

"Well, maybe you should call in sick more often." McHorn gave him a grin and raised his newspaper again.

"Nah, sorry to decline. I prefer to be …" It was at this moment that Nick saw the picture of the face again, along with the accompanying headline. His jaw dropped. "Could I please borrow this for a second, Brian?"

McHorn looked at Nick. "You want the business section? Sure. I never read this stuff anyway." He handed Nick parts of his paper and continued reading the sports section.

Nick put the huge paper - it was rhino-sized, after all - on the table and began reading.

 ** _BOARSCHE CEO DIES AT 52_**

 _Tobias A. Mümmelmann, the CEO of one of the world's most successful sports car companies, Boarsche, has died in Gnuganda._

 _A statement from the Gnugandan company confirmed Dr. Mümmelmann, the son-in-law of company founder Ferdinand Boarsche, had been found dead in his home in Pusemuckel._

 _The rabbit from Cowlogne, Gnuganda, joined the family business in 1989 as a Junior Accountant, after having married the patriarch's youngest daughter, Louise. Quickly climbing up the echelon, he was finally made CEO in 1999. At age 31, he was the youngest CEO of a DAX company, a record which stands to this day._

 _Mümmelmann, who had just returned from a business trip to Zootopia, is survived by his wife Louise and 92 children._

Nick looked up from the paper, completely stunned.

The rabbit … had _died_?

There were no reasons given for the rabbit's sudden demise. Which probably meant the company didn't want the public to know. Which in turn meant the reason for his death was either highly unusual, suspicious, controversial or mighty embarrassing.

Drugs? Suicide? Accident? Auto-erotic asphyxiation?

Or a sudden illness?

And Judy hadn't turned up after seemingly being quite ill the day before.

"ATTEN-HUT!" Thomas Higgins, the Hippo, shouted, and most officers got up and started banging their desks. The door opened, and Chief Bogo entered the room, looking sourly as usual.

The only one not reacting to the Chief's presence was Nick. He kept looking at the paper, reading the article again, looking at the picture of the smiling rabbit. A rabbit who was dead. Having died of unknown causes.

A strange feeling started to bubble up within him. It took him a few seconds to realize that this feeling was panic.

"Wilde!" Bogo thundered.

It didn't even register with Nick.

"SERGEANT WILDE!"

Nick looked up, but instead of looking at his Chief, he was staring straight ahead, with eyes unseeing.

Judy was in trouble, he just knew it.

Having reached this conclusion, he got up from his chair.

"Wilde! Where do you think you're going? And where's your partner?" Bogo leaned into the lectern as if trying to break it to pieces.

Nick stopped in his stride and turned around. "I assume she's still at home, and I'm going to pay here a visit."

"Now?" Bogo bristled. "Are you out of your mind? You will not leave this room until I have given you your assignment!"

If Bogo had hoped to shout Nick into submission, he was in for a disappointment. "You remember the speeder we caught on Friday?"

"Yes. Your point being?"

Nick pointed at the paper, still lying on his desk. "The paper here tells me that he's dead. No reason is given. He appeared to be ill, and Judy looked really ill yesterday. And today, she's not here, she hasn't called in sick, and she's not answering calls, neither mine nor Clawhausers'. I don't know how you call this, Chief, but it sounds suspicious enough to go look after Judy."

His statement was met with stony silence. Nick turned around again and walked towards the door.

"Sergeant Wilde!" Bogo shouted.

Nick stopped again. Without turning around, he said: "If you want to summon a court of inquiry against me, feel free to do so. Me, I'm going to pay Judy a visit." Without another word, he walked towards the door and left the Bullpen.

Had Nick bothered to turn around, he would have seen a gentle expression on Bogo's face.

* * *

It would have taken Nick twenty-four minutes to reach Judy's apartment block via cable car, but the rising panic in him forced him to look for faster means of transportation. He didn't dare taking a cruiser - he certainly was in enough hot water as it was. So he simply flagged a cab. Which meant he was able to reach the building in about ten minutes. While he was waiting for the cab to reach its destination, he tried to call Judy again, but all he got was silence.

 _This is not good._

They had hardly arrived, when he threw the cabbie a twenty-dollar-bill, shouting at him to keep the change and sprinting into the building. The sense of urgency within him had risen constantly, as well as the panic. He reached the door leading to Judy's apartment and banged against it frantically. Upon hearing no response, he dug into his pocket, fumbling for his key ring. Judy had given him a key to her apartment a year ago, just in case of an emergency.

An emergency which was probably happening right now.

Cursing his clumsiness, he finally managed to unlock the door, pushing it open.

And stood rooted to the spot.

"CARROTS!"

With a huge leap, he reached the bed and thus Judy. She was lying on the bed face down, completely unmoving. Even her chest was barely rising. He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.

And what he got to see sent a wave of dread through his body.

His cute bunny was no more. He was looking at a grotesquely shaped lump of fur instead, almost twice the size of Judy's head. Her eyes were swollen shut, and her nose seemed to be almost completely stuffed up.

"Judy!" he shouted. "Talk to me!"

She opened her mouth. "Nick," her voice was barely a whisper.

"Yes, Judy, I'm here," he shouted.

"Nick … you … came …"

"Yes! Yes, I did!"

"Nick … I … lo…"

With a dreadful finality, her head tilted sideways.

With shaking paws, Nick fumbled for his walkie-talkie. "Dispatch, Sergeant Wilde! We need a 10-52 at the Grand Pangolin Arms apartment house, top floor, ASAP. Officer in sore distress! I repeat: Officer in sore distress!"

"Roger that, Sergeant." To Nick's surprise, it wasn't Clawhauser answering the call, but Chief Bogo. "What's the nature of the emergency?"

Nick looked down at the bunny. Her chest was still rising and falling, if only barely, but it was obvious that it wouldn't take much to send her over the edge.

Voice failing, he said: "I think I'm losing her."

* * *

 **Oh, the evil cliffhanger! Don't worry, there's still plenty of stuff to come.**

 **Any now you have the reason why this story underwent the aforementioned massive changes.**

 **One of our rabbits became ill. An unfortunate combination of overgrown teeth (rabbit's teeth continue to grow until their death) and swallowing too much shed fur meant that our poor girl was close to complete constipation. And with rabbits, constipation can kill within 24 hours. Needless to say, my wife and I weren't exactly in the best of moods.**

 **Thankfully, our veterinarian injected her with some antispasmodic medicine, and after having been forced to force-feed our little girl with some custom-made sludge (consisting of baby-food, ground herbs, chamomile tea, and water) for more than a week, her condition finally started to improve. Today, she's as fit as a fiddle. Still is, as a matter of fact.**

 **But this gave me the idea for my story.**

 **Which in turn meant that I had to throw the previous attempt out.**

 **I think that this one is much better than my original idea anyway.**

 **I have no idea when I can put the next chapter up. I need to go to a training course tomorrow, which will take the whole day. Maybe I'm able to do a bit of writing on the journey, which will be done by train. If I get another bout of writing mania, maybe this is enough to have the chapter up and ready by tomorrow evening.**

 **Well, that's it for now!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	4. Chapter Four - His Worst Nightmare

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Lo and behold! I was able to write on the train - tons of stuff actually. I'm just so hyped at the moment!**

 **For some reason I don't understand, it didn't properly register with the system that I had published the third chapter. I hope it works this time.**

 **The numbers are still climbing. Maybe they're not that great - you will surely know better than me if the numbers are good, seeing that I joined this fanfiction site less than two weeks ago -, but to me, almost 900 views, 5 reviews, 16 favorites and 30 followers sound pretty awesome for a first attempt.**

 **And since this is so much fun, I just keep writing and writing and writing. I have just seen my wife scratch her head in obvious incredulity. So yeah, maybe I am obsessing over this. Sue me!**

 **SethadoreVGC pointed out to me that Judy can be seen breathing through her mouth several times in the movie. Yeah, I noticed this, too, and maybe evolution did its part to make this possible, but in the real world, it still is wrong. Just as wrong as having prey like Judy eat crickets, as I've read her do in several stories here. When a rabbit eats too much of something it cannot digest, it dies, simple as that. The digestive system of rabbits is mighty sensitive. Be that as it may, thanks for your comment! (Just so you know, I added the "obligate nasal breather" line only for Judy to poke a bit of fun at Nick. I never wanted to use it as a plot device.)**

 **Thank you, Jo, for your words of encouragement.**

 **Guest, I also want to thank you for your review. And yes, I obviously intend to continue this story … to the bitter end!**

 **I own quite a lot of things. Zootopia is not among them.^**

* * *

Chapter Four

 **His Worst Nightmare**

 _Life, it seems, will fade away, drifting further every day._

Metallica: "Fade to Black" (Written by Cliff Burton, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, and James Hetfield, from the album "Ride the Lightning," Megaforce, 1984)

* * *

His nightmare had just come to life.

Granted, there was no blood, but that was little consolation. Because apart from that little fact, the sight he was forced to see matched his worst nightmare to a T.

Life was slowly ebbing out of Judy; she was getting weaker by the second. She wasn't able to talk, but she had wanted to tell him something. He didn't know what this might have been.

And now he might never know.

His walkie-talkie beeped several times; he ignored it. His cell phone rang twice; he paid it no heed. Bucky and Pronk, the two troublemakers next door, were complaining about the noise again; he didn't even hear them. There was some commotion on the streets when the ambulance finally arrived; he couldn't have cared less. The paramedics stormed into the room, after what seemed like an hour (it had been less than six minutes); he hardly acknowledged their presence.

His thoughts revolved around Judy, and Judy only. Cradling her head in his arms, talking to her constantly, trying to convey to her that everything was fine, that help was on the way.

"Sir," one of the paramedics was talking to Nick with concern in his voice, "you need to let go of the rabbit. We cannot help her if you hold on to her."

He looked up at the ocelot with a frown.

 _Leave her alone!_ , he wanted to shout. _Don't you dare touch her!_

But of course he didn't. The ocelot's request had shaken him out of his stupor. He let go of Judy and made way for the paramedics to do their job. He listened to them talking about possible apnea (he had no idea what this could be), hypotension (he had never even heard the word before), pyrexia (Why did paramedics always feel the need to talk in tongues?) and similar nonsensical stuff while they cared for her, using a portable respirator to help her breath. Only one word registered with him.

"Looks like a serious case of myxy to me," the ocelot told his colleague, who looked like an antelope (Nick wasn't that knowledgeable when it came to all these countless antelope/gnu/springbok variants), as they put Judy on a stretcher.

 _Myxy? What the heck's a myxy?_

"Sir," the ocelot asked him again, "what is your relation to the rabbit?"

"She's my partner," he managed to say. His voice sounded like a frog's croaking. He touched his face, only to find that his fur was drenched in tears.

"You can accompany her to hospital. We will take her there immediately."

Nick nodded slowly. "That would be nice, thank you."

"Does she have a pack of basic toiletries and a pajama handy?"

He managed to bring forth a weak smile. "Yes, she has." He went to her "wardrobe" (a clothes rail) to grab a small sports bag. After both of them had ended up in hospital over the course of less than three months, both had started keeping an emergency pack, as it was commonly called in the ZPD, handy at all times. It contained a few basic items, a toiletry kit, a pajama and a sweat suit. He grabbed her cell phone out of the charging cradle and added it to the bag, along with the charging cable. Finally, he pocketed her keys. "That's it."

"Alright," the ocelot said. "Make way, please, coming through!" he added with a commanding voice, pointing at the door. Judy's neighbors, the Oryx-Antlerson boys, were filling the doorframe, but they stepped aside quickly. Her landlady was also present. Nobody said a word; all they did was watch in obvious discomfort as the paramedics pushed Judy through the door, leaving it up to Nick to close the door and lock it.

The ride over to the hospital was a blur to him. He only had eyes for Judy. As he watched the paramedics bustle around her, he couldn't help noticing just how frail she looked. An IV access was infusing an isotonic saline solution into her bloodstream. A monitor showed that her heart rate had dropped to 100 beats per minute. Her fever had, according to the ocelot, climbed to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and was climbing still.

You didn't need to be a doctor to know that Judy was but an inch from death.

 _She will die_ , Nick thought to himself over and over again. _She will die, and I will not have told her that I love her._

The thought felt like an icy paw grabbing his heart, squeezing it tightly.

They arrived at Zootopia General Hospital in minutes, and the paramedics managed to be out the door with the stretcher the moment the ambulance car had come to a halt. He ran after them, through corridors both empty and populated, until they reached the ER. There, a young female hippo blocked his path. "I'm sorry, sir, but you cannot enter."

He wanted to scream bloody hell and murder, he wanted to push past her, he wanted to arrest her for obstruction of justice, but of course he did nothing of that sort. He just stood there, feeling completely drained and empty. Without another word, he just turned around and walked over to a bench, which would have seemed small only to elephants. He climbed into one of the seats, pulled his legs up to assume some sort of fetal position, and hid his head between his knees.

This was the position Chief Bogo found him in.

Nick heard somebody clear his throat, forcing him to look up. There was Chief Bogo, looking down at him with a facial expression that was impossible to fathom. Without a word, the huge buffalo sat down next to Nick, dwarfing the fox.

For a few minutes, nobody said a word.

Nick felt the urge to apologize for his behavior back in the Bullpen, but he was simply unable to string together words, which was a first for him. He had never had any problems finding the right words for any given situation, but now, words simply failed him.

Finally, Bogo cleared his throat again. "How is she?"

Nick gave a tiny shrug. "Bad."

"How bad?"

"Don't know. Very bad, I guess."

"Do you know why?"

He shook his head, trying to string words together, trying his hardest to calm down. "I heard the medics talk about 'myxy,' but I have no idea what this could be."

"Myxy?"

"That's the word, yes." Nick heaved a sigh. "I guess an apology's in order, sir."

Bogo looked at Nick. "What do you mean?"

"Walking out on the briefing."

For a few seconds, Bogo remained silent, before heaving a sigh himself. "If you had stayed for a few more seconds, I would have told you to go look after your partner." Nick looked at his superior in surprise. Bogo continued: "Your logic was sound, and as a police officer, it is one of your duties to care for your partner's health and well-being. You did what you had to do. Why should I have stopped you?"

Nick just stared at Bogo, who shrugged. "Believe me, Nick, I've been there before myself."

It was, Nick thought dimly, probably the first time Bogo had called him by his first name. Usually it was "Wilde," "Sergeant," or, if he had just annoyed the heck out of him, "Fox."

Bogo leaned back on the bench, which was groaning under his weight, looking closely at Nick. "You like her a lot, do you?"

Nick hesitated for a second, then he shrugged. Bogo had heard his distress call, he certainly knew what was up. "That, sir, is an understatement."

"Figured as much. Since when?"

"Probably right after I was shot. Some fifteen months ago." He made a pause. "I never told you, but the bullet had Judy's name written on it. Given her height, it would probably have caught her right between the eyes, but my shoulder-blade got in the way. I did it on instinct, I didn't even realize what I was doing until the bullet hit me."

Bogo looked at him before taking his wallet out of his pocket. He opened it to retrieve a piece of paper. "I want to show you something." He gave the piece of paper to Nick, who took it.

It was a picture showing two buffaloes. One of them was a much younger Bogo, wearing the rank insignia of a Sergeant. The other one was a female, also wearing a ZPD uniform. They were standing next to each other, smiling into the camera. It was a happy picture, similar to the countless selfies Nick and Judy had taken of themselves over the years.

"This is Meredith Nanus. She joined the ZPD back when I was a Sergeant, and my predecessor, Chief Ironhide, assigned her to be my partner. And something instantly clicked between her and me. We got along spectacularly well from Day One, much like Hopps and you were always getting along. And along the way, I simply was unable to prevent myself from falling in love with her."

Nick examined the picture more closely, looking for signs showing that the two buffaloes had been lovers, finding none. As if reading his thoughts, Bogo continued: "I was very careful to hide my feelings. After all, rules are rules, and I would never have dared to break them. I never talked to her about it, but I'm sure she had at least some idea of what I was feeling."

Nick couldn't help noticing that the chief was talking in the past tense. "What happened?"

Bogo gave a noncommittal gesture. "She died."

Nick had expected something along this line, but the blunt way in which Bogo told it was chilling nonetheless. "How?"

"There was a gang of weasels which gave us a lot of trouble. They were dealing in drugs and had caused an enormous amount of problems, aggravated battery, grand theft auto, bank robbery, the whole enchilada. We, that is Meredith and myself, had tried to unravel their plans and schemes for weeks, and finally, we thought we had them cornered. So Meredith and I went in for the arrest." He sighed. "Of course, things went south immediately. We walked right into an ambush, and a firefight broke out. We were quite safe behind our covers, but the weasels had taken cover, too. A stalemate, so to speak. Until I did something incredibly stupid. Instead of waiting for backup to arrive, I decided to go in for the kill. So I gave up my cover to get closer to the weasels."

"And got shot," Nick said.

"I had just made one step when one of the thugs managed to shoot me in the calf. I went down, but managed to take cover again. Meredith saw me go down and panicked."

Nick closed his eyes. Suddenly he didn't want to hear the rest of the story. But Bogo continued in a very matter-of-fact tone: "She left her cover to run over to me. And the weasels fired a barrage of 9 millimeters at her. She was hit 19 times. Twelve shots were fatal. She made it to my cover, but died in my arms. Her last words were: 'I love you, Adrian.'"

Bogo gave a funny sound between a snort and a sob. "I made a vow to myself that day. I vowed that I would never, ever, let anyone get that close to me again." He made a pause. "Needless to say, I fail spectacular at this, on an almost daily basis. Everybody gets under my skin. You, Clawhauser, Higgins, McHorn, Delgato. And your partner, too, of course."

"I'm sorry" was all Nick was able to say.

"There's no need to be sorry. Every police officer who stays with the force long enough has a few stories like that to tell. Everybody suffers losses along the way." Bogo looked down at Nick, taking the picture back out of his paws and pocketing it again. "This doesn't make it any easier to bear, I know. Everybody makes the mistake of making friends, and some even make the mistake of falling in love. These lessons are always painful, yet everybody walks into this trap over and over again. Myself certainly not excluded." He made a pause. "And yourself, too."

"I didn't plan to fall in love," Nick said automatically.

"Of course not. These things just happen. Even between a fox and a rabbit. I saw a lion and a hippo fall in love with each other. It didn't work out, but for some time, these two were so tight, you were unable to separate them with a stick. You falling in love with your partner, that's nothing new. It's the first time I've seen a fox fall for a bunny, but then again, you are the only fox and bunny in the ZPD. What was that song again? The times, they are a-changin'."

"How long do you know?"

"Well, I didn't know for sure until you told me just now, but I had my suspicions for quite a while now. By the way, I know you took the bullet for Hopps. She told me."

"She did?"

"Yes, and that was the moment I realized that she was more to you than just a simple partner. Which is why I tried to separate you, but as you probably recall, that one didn't work out that well."

Nick nodded. Bogo had indeed forced Judy to work with Delgato while he had been forced into teaming up with McHorn. But despite the fact that both of them got along well with the lion and the rhino to this day, they hadn't been even close to getting the same results he was getting when working with Judy.

"I wanted results," Bogo said, "so, against my better judgment, I put the two of you together again. And your accomplishments proved me right. Causing you a lot of anguish in the process."

"It's not your fault, Chief," Nick heard himself say. "It's mine. I shouldn't have let Judy get to me."

"It's not that easy. Sometimes these things just happen, despite your best efforts to prevent them."

"No!" Nick shouted. "I should not have let her get to me. Nobody gets to me! _Nobody!_ " He gave a dry cough to hide the fact that he was close to tears again. "Have I told you why I became a hustler?"

"I don't remember the details, but I seem to recall that you were bullied by a bunch of prey who were up to no good."

"They lured me in by offering me to join the Junior Ranger Scouts." He gave Bogo a quick account of what had happened more than twenty-five years ago. He had told him the story once before, but Bogo was well known for not bothering to remember details of stories, as long as they didn't interfere with business. "I learned two lessons that day. One, I would never let anyone see that they got to me. And two, if everybody assumes that foxes are nothing but sly, shifty, and untrustworthy, why bother trying to be anything else?"

"And yet they get to you, and you fail to hide it."

Nick lowered his head. "Yes, they do. Judy in particular."

"These feelings just prove that you are a mammal, that you are no robot."

"Yes, but sometimes … sometimes I just wish to be able to extinguish these feelings for good."

"I know. Everybody wishes something like this at one point. When Meredith died, I wanted to rip my heart out. I would have done anything to stop the pain. But she wouldn't have wanted me to, so I didn't. I just … moved on. I didn't like it, but I had to." He made a pause. "You wouldn't be half the mammal you are, you wouldn't be half the _officer_ you are, if not for your pesky feelings and the fact that your partner constantly gets to you. It's things like these which elevate us above the common mammals. The passion. The dedication. And yes, even our ability to love." He gave Nick a look full of compassion and concern, something Nick had never seen him do. "The best of us accept these feelings, even embrace them. And then they go about their business, putting themselves in the line of fire despite their emotions, their fears. Achieving great things in the process."

Bogo got up. "For the record, it makes me proud that you apply your skills to upholding the law now."

"Thank you, sir."

"The offer to join Homicide Squad, to be promoted to Lieutenant, is an honor, an honor you have earned. You have earned it the hard way, you have earned it in a manner not everyone will approve of, yet you earned it. And that's enough for me." He made yet another pause. "How do you feel?"

"One word? Horrible."

"Yes, I can see that much. Listen, Sergeant, I am going to take you off the roster now, with full pay. You are not yourself, and forcing you to work now would mean risking both your well-being and the well-being of your ersatz partner. Until this is over, you stay here. Your partner needs you. You need to help her pull through this by staying by her side. Understood?"

Nick felt a huge wave of gratitude towards the Chief. "How long?"

"For as long as it takes for Hopps to be up and running again."

Nick nodded and got up, offering his paw for a pawshake. "Thank you so much, sir. For everything."

Bogo returned the pawshake. "You're welcome." With that, he turned around and walked down the corridor, disappearing behind a corner.

Nick sat down again, closing his eyes. The words of confidence from his Chief meant a lot to him, yet right now, he would have traded them for having his partner by his side. He would have traded anything for having Judy by his side.

 _Judy …_

Her smile lightened his days. Her light illuminated his path. Her energy energized him. Her passion drove him to try and achieve the impossible.

If not for her, he would still be selling pawpsicles to lemmings, he would still be hustling to make ends meet.

He would still be a lesser mammal than he was today.

 _Judy …_

Wherever he went, he saw her face. Her scent was in every flower. Her laughter was in every song. Her movements were in everything that moved around him.

And now, the possibility of losing all of this to some stupid illness made him sick with fear.

He wouldn't be the only one missing her, though. All the officers in Precinct One, they would miss her. All the mammals in Zootopia who still believed that anyone could be anything, they would miss her. Her family, they …

Nick flinched.

 _Her family …_

They had no idea what was going on right now. Sure, they were the first to be notified in a case of emergency, yet he doubted that anyone had found the time to call them.

Which meant that it was up to him to break the bad news to them.

He took out his phone, looking for the entry reading "Bonnie & Stu" in his list of contacts, and pressing the screen to dial the number. Taking a deep breath, he braced for the inevitable.

It didn't take long for the Hoppses to pick up the phone. A picture of Judy's mother appeared on the tiny screen. She was wearing an apron and seemed to be covered in flour from head to paw. Upon seeing him, her face lit up. "Nicky! Long time, no see!"

He gave a tiny bow, just deep enough for her to see it. "Hello, Bonnie. Is Stu with you?"

She made a frown. "Uh, he's outside, getting the tractor ready. What's wrong?"

"I'd rather you were both listening, it would save me the effort of telling the same thing twice."

"Alright." He could tell from the look on her face that she had realized instantly that something was amiss. "One moment, please." She put down the phone, yelling "Stuart!"

It didn't take the patriarch of the Hopps family long to join his wife. "What's up, Bon?"

"It's Nick. Something has happened." She picked up the phone again. Stu was wearing his usual overall. "Hello, Nick the Slick." It was one of the more quirky habits of Stu Hopps to assign nicknames to every mammal around. Nick had gotten used to being called Slick, yet it still sounded a bit more special when Stu said it. Maybe it was his way of making amends for the fact that he had treated him with distrust during their first meeting. "How are you?"

"Not well."

"Why?" Bonnie asked. "What's wrong? Did something happen to our daughter?"

Nick nodded in confirmation. "Judy is sick. I'm in hospital right now, and the doctors are busy helping her." He had hoped against hope that it would be easier to tell them, but he found out that it took him all the willpower he had to tell Judy's parents just in how bad a shape their daughter really was.

He took a deep breath. "I really don't know how to sugar-coat this for you. I found her in her apartment about an hour ago. She was barely breathing. Her whole head was swollen. She …"

He was interrupted by a gasp. All of a sudden, Bonnie disappeared from view. At the same time, all hints of happiness had vanished from Stu's face. "Do you happen to know what's wrong with her?" he asked in a rather harsh tone.

"I'm not sure. I heard one of the paramedics mention something called 'myxy.'"

And Stuart Hopps turned pale under his fur.

It was a shocking sight.

Nick had seen Stu weep, he had seen him funny, sad, and angry.

He had never seen him being utterly devastated.

He heard Bonnie say: "Oh, Stu … our daughter!" She appeared again - obviously her legs had failed her, and she had sat down on a nearby chair.

"What is myxy?" Nick asked.

Stu took a deep breath. "You were there when we were celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of our wedding, right?"

Of course he had been there, about two years ago.

It had been his third visit to Bunnyburrow, and it had really been a night to remember. Dancing with Bonnie, chatting and playing with a heap of bunnies, being called a "swell guy … for a fox" by Stu after the sixth glass of apple cider, and of course dancing with Judy. Lots of dancing. Slow and intimate.

It had probably been the first time he had become aware of the fact that he was feeling more for his partner than simple friendship.

"How could I forget?" he said.

"Have you never asked yourself why a bunny couple had their first litter of kits after being married for more than five years?"

Nick hesitated. It _was_ odd, now that he thought about it. Judy was one of their oldest kits, one of five from their first litter. Given their reputation for overabundant procreation, it was highly unlikely for bunnies to be married and not have a couple of kits a few months later. "No, I never looked into this more closely. I just figured you were busy getting your things in order, whipping the farm into shape before being able to have kits."

Bonnie shook her head. "Nick, bunnies just do have lots of kits; they do not hinder us at all. We can be what we want to be and still have hundreds of kits. It's the bunny way."

Nick gave a frown. "Something tells me Judy's litter wasn't your first one."

Stu shook his head. "Not by a long shot. When she was born, Bonnie here had already given birth to 64 kits."

This took Nick completely by surprise. "64?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

Stu sighed, and all of a sudden he looked as if he had just aged by thirty years. "Some 27 years ago, the whole world, including Bunnyburrow, was struck by an epidemic, a disease called myxomatosis. It probably is the bane of rabbits all over the world. Rabbits died by the truckload."

"By the truckload?" The word sounded oddly ill-fitting to Nick.

"Rabbits truly died in droves," Bonnie said. "By the time the virus had run its course, 147 million bunnies had died in Bunnyburrow alone."

Nick gasped at hearing this. " _147 millions?_ "

"And more than one billion all over the world."

And the hits just kept on coming! " _One … billion?_ "

"Yes. We were infected, too. Both Stu and I survived, barely. Out kits … they weren't so lucky."

"They all … _died?_ "

"Each and every one of them," Stu said grimly. "Back then, there was no vaccination, so once you caught the virus, it was pretty much hope against hope that you would survive. Even today, there is no cure. All we can do is get our annual dose of vaccination."

"Has Judy missed hers?" Bonnie asked.

"I have no idea," Nick said. "I didn't even know she needed to be vaccinated."

Right at this moment, another mammal approached him. He wore a white lab coat, and his name tag read "Zachary Pawson, M.D." Nick recognized him immediately. Pawson was the surgeon who had removed the bullet from his shoulder fifteen months ago. "Excuse me," he said. "Ah, it's you, Detective Wilde."

Somehow, Nick managed to give the grizzly a smile while standing up. "Yes, it's me. Although it's 'Sergeant' now."

"Why, congratulations!"

"Thank you, sir."

"We'll talk later," Bonnie said.

"No, don't hang up, Bonnie. You might want to hear this."

"Who is it?" Dr. Pawson asked.

Nick turned his phone around so that the doctor was able to see the two bunnies on the other end of the line. "Dr. Pawson, meet Bonnie and Stuart Hopps, the parents of Judy Hopps. Bonnie, Stu, this is Doctor Zachary Pawson. He was the one who put me under the knife after I was shot by the raccoon henchman of our suspect drug trafficker."

"Pleased to meet you," the doctor said genially, then his smile faded. "Wish I could have been under better circumstances."

"What's wrong with our daughter?" Bonnie asked with an odd tone of urgency in her voice.

"Well, all the tests came back positive. It is my sad duty to inform you that your daughter is indeed suffering from a severe case of myxomatosis. The disease is in a very advanced stage. We have administered a wide spread of antibiotics to prevent further bacterial infections. Sadly, there's not much more we can do at this stage. I'm sorry."

Stu and Bonnie looked as if the doctor had just announced the end of the world as they knew it.

* * *

 **And another one done!**

 **Just for your information, apnea is severe shortness of breath, hypotension is low blood pressure, and pyrexia is fever.**

 **Now, myxomatosis …**

 **If you think I exaggerated the effect of this disease, I did not. Not even remotely!**

 **The disease was introduced to France in 1952. Two years later, 90% of the rabbit population in France had died!**

 **The disease even jumped across the English Channel in 1953. It is believed that over the course of a few short years, 99% (!) of the rabbits in the UK were wiped out by myxomatosis.**

 **To this day, the disease is used in Australia to keep rabbit population levels in check.**

 **There still is no cure; the only protection a bunny can get is through vaccination.**

 **The disease can cause cancer, blindness, fatigue and fever. In most cases, the sick rabbit will develop lumps and swellings around the head and the genitals. Much worse, the disease weakens a rabbit so much that it will, in most cases, contract additional bacterial infections like pneumonia. The majority of rabbits contracting myxomatosis succumb to one of those additional infections, not myxomatosis itself.**

 **While the disease is not necessarily deadly as such, the mortality rate is frighteningly high. Most rabbits die within a fortnight. Owners of sick rabbits are strongly urged to euthanize the rabbit to end the suffering. Nowadays, a few bunnies have developed sort of an immunity, especially in Australia, where one out of three rabbits contracting myxomatosis survives. In Europe however, nine out of ten infected rabbits die. (I don't know the numbers for the U.S. of A. though.)**

 **Exaggeration? I don't think so.**

 **Now, will the disease kill our favorite bunny?**

 **Stay tuned! Next chapter is probably coming soon!**

 **And, of course, take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	5. Chapter Five - Taking up the Burden

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **My wife just reminded me that our lawn is in desperate need of mowing. Don't care, don't care! Need to write! Need to advance this plot! Need to complete this story!**

 **But I know my wife will win in the end - she always does. And I'm okay with that.** **"Ich mach's morgen, mein Schatz, versprochen! Ja, ich liebe dich auch!"** **(Phew, that's been dealt with!)**

 **Be that as it may, right now, I'm still writing. Because I get the feeling you really like what I'm doing.**

 **11 reviews, 29 favorites, 46 followers and more than 1,800 views. For a story that still is less than a week old.**

 **Is this normal?**

 **Thanks to BeecroftA for the review. Some interesting ideas here. And a lot of interpretation, not all of it to the point, but a nice effort nonetheless. Kudos!**

 **Also thanks to randomkungfupandafan (what a name!) for the comment. Short, but succinct.**

 **SethadoreVGC: AHHHHHHHHHH OMG YEEEEEEEEEEES! Judy! ;-)**

 **Thanks, Samiam2468, for your kind words. I'm really and honestly glad that you don't think the first chapter is too long.**

 **Also thanks to Rose. I really appreciate it that you like my style of writing.**

 **Thanks to guys like you, I'm writing my ass off here! But I love it!**

 **Keep the reviews coming!**

 **The upcoming chapter is, for the most part, a tribute to one of my favorite books. Let's see if you can guess which one it is … (It's not that hard actually.)**

 **Own Zootopia, I do not. If once you start down this light path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice. (Henceforth, I shall be known as Darth Vader! NOT!)**

* * *

Chapter Five

 **Taking Up the Burden**

 _I tried so hard and got so far. But in the end it doesn't even matter._

Linkin Park: "In the End" (Written by Linkin Park, from the album "Hybrid Theory," Warner Bros., 2000)

* * *

The sight alone was almost enough to break Nick's heart.

His Carrots, his Fluff, his Judy.

Almost completely unrecognizable.

She was lying in a bed big enough for a lion to stretch his legs, looking tiny and fragile. Countless machines surrounded the bed, beeping and whirring and humming. Two IV bags were connected to her arms. The respirator gave a rhythmic hiss.

It was such a sorry sight, Nick had to fight tears again.

Not for the first time today, and probably not for the last time either.

"We had to put her in a coma," Dr. Pawson said, looking through the window separating the quarantine room from the antechamber. "Her heart rate's way too low, and her temperature was rising steadily. We were looking at a possible multiple organ failure. Right now she's stable, but you never know with these diseases. Luckily, she's an unusually fit and healthy rabbit, which works in our favor." He heaved a sigh. "In the end, all we can do is keep her as healthy as possible. She has to pull her way through this herself. One tiny additional infection, and …," his words trailed off.

The door to the antechamber opened, and a nurse entered the room, wearing a sterile dress, along with gloves and a surgical mask, which looked slightly funny on the pig's snout. She shot a side glance at Nick, frowning, but refrained from saying anything. She entered the quarantine room and proceeded to replace an IV bag.

"That's the reason why," Pawson continued, pointing at the nurse, "on top of the usual saline solution, we're also administering a wide spread of antibiotics, amoxicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, the whole program. Our greatest concern is a possible case of pneumonia. So far, her body is reacting good to all those drugs. The main problem we have right now is her body temperature. It had reached 106 degrees when she came here, but we were able to stabilize it at around 105 degrees. Still way too high, but at least it's not that life-threatening anymore. Her condition is bad enough as it is."

"At least it seems that you are doing everything you can," Nick said, nodding.

Pawson shrugged. "It's the least I can do. After all, she's the one who made sure I kept my job."

Nick looked at him in surprise. "She is?"

"She is indeed." Pawson looked at Nick. "Of course, you helped her."

"Oh," Nick said.

"When you found the missing mammals all those years ago, there was so much animosity between prey and predators, mammals asked for me to be removed from my post here. There was so much pressure on the Chief of Staff, he had no choice but to dismiss me without notice. But when the two of you solved the Nighthowler case, I was reinstated immediately. They even made me the Chief of Medicine in the meantime. I am deeply in your debt, so making sure that Zootopia's hero survives is the least I can do."

Nick could merely nod. He had heard sentences like these quite often over the course of the years. It was common believe that the two of them were the only reason that Zootopia had not descended into complete and utter chaos over the Nighthowler case. To most mammals, it didn't matter that a lot of other individuals had had their fair share in keeping the peace and restoring order between prey and predators. It had all been down to Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, that was the common sentiment. One of the reasons why they were so popular all over Zootopia.

Nick heard a beep, and Pawson took a pager out of his pocket, looking at it. "Excuse me, Sergeant, but I must leave you now. There are other patients in need of care."

"Of course," Nick said. "And thank you."

The doctor left the antechamber, leaving Nick alone with his dark thoughts. He walked over to one of the chairs adorning the antechamber, and climbed into one. It was so huge, a rhino would have fit into it with inches to spare. He barely noticed the nurse coming out of the quarantine room again.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

He looked at her with a frown. Her tone had been positively hostile. "Excuse me?"

"What are you doing?" she repeated.

He gave her his most mocking smirk. "What does it look like to you, ma'am?"

"You cannot just stay here," she announced.

"Oh. And why is that?"

"This is not a room for visitors to hang around in!"

"It isn't? Well, where do you suggest I should hang around instead?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. But you have to leave, now!

"Why? Don't you think Doctor Pawson would have thrown me out if I wasn't allowed to be here?"

"It's not the job of the Doctor to manage this place."

Nick was slowly, but surely, becoming annoyed. "Listen, young lady, the bunny in there is my partner on the force. She is the closest friend I have. My boss specifically ordered me to stay here to care for her, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"I can call for security!"

Now Nick was officially pissed-off. Getting up from his chair, he approached the pig. To his surprise, the sow backed off immediately, looking at him with what can only be described as trepidation. Something in him clicked. "What are you afraid of?" He made a conscious effort to prevent his claws from showing. "Are you afraid of me? Do you think I might go nuts? That I might go savage? You think I might try to eat her?"

She just looked at him, a hint of horror on her face.

Why was he always forced to deal with this prey/predator crap over and over again?

"I'm a _police officer_ , for crying out loud!" he simply was unable to prevent himself shouting. "And this," he pointed at Judy, "this is my partner. We are _friends_! Best of friends even! I would never, ever, think of doing her any harm! I have saved her life! How dare you …"

He was interrupted by a solid knock at the door. It opened, and a big polar bear entered the room, followed by yet another one.

A huge pit seemed to open up in his stomach, threatening to swallow his heart whole.

He knew those polar bears. He knew them really well.

Both didn't acknowledge his presence, they barely even looked at him. They merely assumed position at both sides of the door, as if they were honor guards. Which they were, in a manner of speaking.

With a tiny grunt, another polar bear entered the room. He was positively enormous, being forced to lower his whole torso to fit through the door. As usual when indoors, Boris Koslov looked too big to be allowed. In his massive paws, the huge mammal was carrying a tiny chair which in turn held a similarly tiny arctic shrew.

The pig had watched all this unfold with a hint of annoyance. "Excuse me, but you cannot …"

This was as far as she got.

Koslov gave an almighty growl, which caused her to back away, stumble, and fall down onto her rump with a thud.

Nobody said a word. Until the shrew gave a silent "Hmm."

Upon hearing this, Nick's ears folded flat onto his head. His shady history with Mr. Big was something that haunted him still. He still couldn't help feeling a hint of mortal terror whenever he came across Tundratown's crime boss. Deep down inside, he knew that he wasn't in danger of any physical harm, not anymore, still you cannot do away with mortal fears that easily after having conned a criminal mastermind.

Mr. Big looked at the sight of Judy, lying in her bed, then he gave another "Hmm." Turning towards the pig, who was still sitting on the floor, looking at him open-mouthed and in complete and utter incomprehension, he said: "Young mammal, would you please be so kind and fetch the doctor in charge? I would like to have a word with the mammal." His voice was soft, yet it seemed to fill the room with its presence.

When the pig made no move, Nick suddenly felt a stab of sympathy towards her. Annoying and obnoxious as she was, it was obvious that she also was in mortal fear, fear which seemed to paralyze her. "I suggest you do what he asks you to," he said silently. "Believe me, you do not want to keep Mr. Big waiting."

The pig scrambled to her hoofs and left the room, leaving every impression of fleeing from a scene of dread.

Mr. Big turned towards Nick with yet another sigh. "Nicky," he simply said, offering his beringed paw.

Nick approached him cautiously and planted a tiny kiss on the ring. "Mr. Big."

The shrew turned towards the sight of Judy again. "It seems that our dear Judy is in deep, deep trouble."

"She is," Nick said.

"What happened?"

"We caught a speeder four days ago. It was a rabbit, and he was obviously ill."

"Ill?"

"Yes, an illness called myxomatosis. It only befalls rabbits, but most rabbits who contract the disease die within fourteen days. The rabbit died on Sunday, but Judy obviously caught the virus, too."

"That … is unfortunate."

To Nick, it was so much more than just unfortunate, but he merely said: "It is."

"You care for her deeply." It was a statement, not a question.

"I do. She's my friend. I wouldn't be here, if not for her."

"You wouldn't. Listen, Nicky", the shrew leaned forward in his seat, "we've had our differences in the past, and I do admit there was a time I never wanted to see your face again. Now, look at you. Look what you have achieved."

Nick merely looked at him, having no idea where this conversation was leading.

Mr. Big continued: "Even when you were deeply entrenched in your conning and scheming ways, even when you were working for me, I always had the feeling that this wasn't what you really wanted. You didn't strike me to be as committed as I would have deemed necessary. Your heart," he pointed at Nick's chest, "wasn't in it. Now you are a police officer. And your heart is in it completely."

"It is," Nick merely said.

"And it shows. You care deeply for your partner, and you care deeply for law and order to be upheld. Deep down, you always did. But society gave you no chance." Mr. Big gave yet another sigh. "The ZPD and I, we are polar opposites in many ways, and we will never see eye-to-eye in regards of commerce. Yet there are moments when our goals align. We all want peace and order in our time. The police is doing a great service to the public, just as I try to do a great service to those I care for."

Nick nodded. The shrew certainly was entangled in a lot of illicit proceedings in Zootopia, but he also was a philanthropist. Helping others, caring for his family and friends, it was just something he did. Not out of cunning, but out of a feeling of respect and gratitude. He was grateful that Judy had saved his beloved daughter's life, and he had proven his gratitude ever since. Even to Nick. After all, he was still alive, wasn't he?

Mr. Big looked at Judy again. "She saved my daughter's life. I am deeply in her debt. And my daughter loves her with all her heart. Over time, Judy has become family. And family protects itself and each other." He made a pause. "You saved her life more than one year ago, did you not?"

Nick made a frown. It wasn't common knowledge that he took the bullet aimed for his partner. How did the shrew figure this one out?

Mr. Big continued, obviously not having expected a reply. "Since she is family, I want to protect her. And everyone who protects her is my friend. You, Nicky, have earned my friendship. You did wrong me in the past, you did wrong my grandmama in the past, but you have made amends. Should you ever find yourself in trouble, you will always find a friend in Tundratown."

Nick gave him a rather stiff nod. "Thank you very much, sir."

"I couldn't help overhear you shouting. Was there a problem between you and the nurse?"

Nick shrugged. "We had a little thoughtful discussion about whether I was allowed to stay here or not."

"Ah. I guess Chief Bogo ordered you to stay here."

Nick really couldn't help himself at this point. "Yes, he did, but how do you know? Who told you that Judy's in trouble? She was brought here less than four hours ago, most people don't even know she's here, yet here you are. And who told you that I saved Judy's life?"

Mr. Big merely smiled. "My son, do you really think you and Judy are the only friends I have at the ZPD?"

Nick nodded. He should have known that the cunning shrew had more aces up his sleeve. "Of course. The nurse didn't want me to stay here. I think she's still full of this 'predators are dangerous' crap."

"Hmm."

At this moment the door opened, and Dr. Pawson entered, followed by the nurse. Mr. Big turned towards the grizzly immediately. "Ah. You are the doctor in charge of Judy's treatment, are you not?"

Pawson looked at the three polar bears. As tall as he was himself, all of Mr. Big's henchmammals were taller than him. Nick knew from experience that their presence was highly effective in intimidating mammals. Pawson, however, did not appear to be fazed. "I am. Name's Zachary Pawson. And you are…?"

"You may call me Mr. Big," the shrew said simply.

Pawson nodded. "Well, Mr. Big, what do you want? I don't have much time, and there are other patients in need of help."

"I will not keep you longer than it is necessary. Tell me, dear doctor, is it true that she is but an inch from death."

"Yes, she is."

"She could die any second?"

"Indeed."

Nick found the cavalier manner in which Pawson and Mr. Big spoke of Judy's possible death highly disturbing.

"Ah," Mr. Big said. "You must understand that this bunny is very dear to me. She did me a great service once."

Pawson shrugged. "Your point being?" If he was intimidated by the circumstances, he hid it very well.

"My point is that I want to see with my own eyes that she receives the best treatment she can possibly get."

"Of course she gets the best possible treatment," Lawson said, annoyance creeping into his voice.

 _You are one brave mammal_ , Nick thought.

Mr. Big gave Pawson a nod. "Then I am content."

"And if she dies?" Pawson grunted and bent forward at the hip to bring his face closer to the tiny crime boss. "What happens if she dies? And let it be known to you that this could very well happen. This disease has claimed _billions_ of bunny lives over the course of the centuries. What if _she_ dies? Do I end up in a lake, with a nice solid concrete block around my ankles?"

 _No, you're not brave, you're suicidal_ , Nick thought.

Mr. Big threw his tiny arms into the air. "My dear doctor, you misunderstand me! I am only asking you to do what is in your power to save her. If it is really true that she will die, if it is true that she is beyond saving, despite your best efforts, it will not be held against you. We will take up the burden. We will comfort her. We will close her eyes. We will bury her and weep at her funeral and afterwards we will watch over her family and friends."

Yet again Nick felt the sting of tears and started blinking furiously to hold them back.

"And if I don't give it my best effort?" Pawson asked bluntly.

"Then we will be … disappointed."

Pawson straightened himself to his full height. "If that's all you wanted, you needn't have come here. I have sworn the hippopocratic oath. I help _everyone_ who's in need of help, regardless of species, occupation, rank, gender, or social status. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I will help Judy Hopps. If not for her, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have a job. I will help her, if it's the last thing I do."

Mr. Big nodded. "Then, my dear doctor, we are in agreement. Do what is necessary to make sure she survives. Money is of no consideration."

Pawson raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"It is my understanding that the hospital is facing difficult times. It is hard to make ends meet when you do care about your patients so much." Mr. Big made a pause. "I can make all your financial worries disappear."

This gave Pawson pause. "Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"What's the catch?"

"There is no catch, my dear doctor. Consider it a token of our friendship."

Pawson hesitated, then he nodded. And for the first time since the doctor re-entered the antechamber, he appeared to be wary. It had obviously taken him all this time to fully realize whom he was dealing with. "Very well. I am honored, and I thank you. Is there anything else?"

Mr. Big pointed at Nick. "This fine young mammal here told me that this nurse tried to throw him out of this very room. He is her partner and her guardian, and he is my friend. I would very much like him to be allowed to stay here."

Pawson nodded. "Nurse Piggledy," he said without looking at her, "you will provide a bed for Sergeant Wilde. He can stay here as long as he desires."

"But sir …," the nurse started to protest.

"What?"

The nurse took a deep breath. "Sir, nobody stays in the antechamber. Those are the rules."

"I am the Chief of Medicine, Piggledy, and I can change the rules."

"But sir, he is a predator!"

"So am I," Pawson growled, baring his teeth.

"Uh, sir …"

"Don't 'sir' me, nurse! Just do as I say!"

"I don't need a bed," Nick said quickly. "The chairs are big enough. But a blanket would be nice."

"It will be provided," Pawson said stiffly. "If that is all, I must attend to my other duties. Mr. Big. Sergeant Wilde." He nodded twice and left the room without looking back. The nurse hurried after him, either to provide the blanket or to leave the scene of her own personal horror.

Nick looked at Mr. Big. "Thank you," was all he managed to say.

Mr. Big shrugged. "Anything for the family. You watch over her, you hear me?"

"I will. I will not leave her side."

"Very well, my friend. And now, we must depart. Until we meet again."

Nick watched him leave, realizing that he had just lied to Mr. Big.

At the very least, he needed a change of clothes.

* * *

 **I was constantly whistling the "Love Theme from The Godfather" by Nino Rota while writing this. And in case you are interested, go to Youtube and listen to "The Godfather -Rock Metal Version by the French guitarist Sylvain Cloux and, of course, the marvelous "Godfather" renditions by Slash.**

 **The next chapter might take a day longer - I really need to mow the lawn!**

 **Please send me your reviews!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	6. Chapter Six - Talking to Her

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Quick review of the stats: 16 reviews, almost 2900 views, 31 favorites, 58 followers. I noticed yesterday that most stories on this page have lower numbers, despite having been published weeks ago. This story started May 28! That's six days ago!**

 **I have no idea where this comes from, I have no idea where this leads me, and to be honest, it is a bit intimidating. Because several things have changed since I started to write this.**

 **As a rule, I am a perfectionist, especially when writing. Whenever I sit down and write something, be it stories, letters, or just a simple note to my wife, I tend to tinker with wording, grammar, syntax, and what have you. In the case of stories, this can take weeks, sometimes months. (In this particular case, it is worsened by the fact that I'm German, that English is not my native tongue. I started learning English in fifth grade in school, aged ten, some 34 years ago. And I wasn't that good a student to begin with. During my final exams, I merely managed seven points in English, that's a C- in America. Nothing to write home about.) And the number of stories sitting on my computer's hard drive that never made it to the "publishable" stage because I was discontent with their development is huge, some 450, I think. Never before have I written something only to publish it immediately, without further proof-reading or thorough analysis of possible problems within the storyline.**

 **What I have done over the course of the last few days, it is so** ** _not_** **me, it's kind of scary.**

 ** _WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?_**

 **I thank you all from the bottom of my heart Your support is just awesome! I'm really running out of superlatives here!**

 **Thanks to you, Matri, for your review. That one wasn't all that easy to write, a lot of pondering between more and less.**

 **Thanks also to Chica2702 for the words of encouragement.**

 **And finally, a huge shout goes out to PointyHairedJedi. Like I said in my PM, we're all just dazed and confused. And I am the worst dazed and confused guy you can possibly imagine!**

 **Even if I make them an offer they can't refuse, I still don't think Disney will sell the rights to Zootopia to me. Which is a pity, really. The things I would do … (insert evil, mad laughter here)**

* * *

Chapter Six

 **Talking to Her**

 _(Wake me up!) Wake me up inside! (I can't wake up!) Wake me up inside! (Save me!) Call my name and save me from the dark!_

Evanescence feat. Paul McCoy: "Bring Me to Life" (Written by Ben Moody, Amy Lee, and David Hodges, from the album "Fallen," Wind Up/Epic, 2003)

* * *

"There you are," Brian McHorn said with one of his customary smiles that looked as if he was in a very bad mood, handing Nick a box, which in the huge hooves of the rhino looked tiny. In Nick's paws, however, it turned into a good-sized suitcase. "I hope I didn't forget anything."

Nick opened the suitcase quickly and checked its contents. "No, Brian, it's all there. Thanks a bundle!" As soon as his shift had ended, McHorn had gone to the Zootopia General Hospital at once, like so many of their colleagues, to check up on Judy. It was then that Clawhauser had pointed out that Nick had still been wearing his uniform, despite having been taken off the roster half a day ago. After having explained to them that he wasn't willing to leave the hospital to fetch his things, a change of clothes among them, McHorn had volunteered to go to Nick's home to collect a few items. "Anything for my ex-partner," he had said with his usual scowl.

Now, McHorn gave him a true smile. "Don't mention it." He pointed at the suitcase, now resting on one of those enormous chairs. "Why are all your shirts identical?"

Nick shrugged. "So that I don't lose time deciding what to wear."

"Was hustling that time-consuming?" Nick had always been open about his past, towards his superiors as well as his colleagues. Everybody in Precinct One knew that he was a former con-artist, but since he had proven to be worth his salt, since he had completely and irrefutably turned his back on his illicit past, nobody cared. On top of that, Bogo trusted him without compunction, and most guys in the ZPD wouldn't have dared to question the judgment of the Chief.

"You have no idea."

This caused everyone in the room to chuckle. Of the seven mammals who had come over, only Benjamin Clawhauser, McHorn, and Frederick Delgato had stayed - all the others had returned to their private lives, their families. Delgato was the first one to become serious again. "How is she?"

Nick looked at Judy through the pane of glass separating the quarantine room from the antechamber. "The doctor said she's stable for now, but there are just so many things that can go wrong."

McHorn nodded. "And Bogo actually wanted you to stay here?"

"He did. And I honestly don't know why. I mean, I really want to stay here, but let's face it, it's not that I can help her right now."

"Have you tried talking to her?" Clawhauser asked.

"How? Ben, she's in a coma! She can't even hear me! Besides, she's in there, I'm out here."

Clawhauser shrugged. "Bunnies have a very good sense of hearing, but you know this better than I do. As for the talking, I've read about this somewhere. Sometimes, mammals who are in a coma still react to what people do around him or her."

"You sure?"

"No. But it beats sitting around here, doing nothing."

Nick gave him a noncommittal shrug. He had read about this, too, but he had instantly dismissed it as childish nonsense. Still, it couldn't hurt trying. "Hey, Carrots. It's me. Your dumb fox."

Nothing happened. Of course, nothing happened.

Clawhauser shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try." He looked at the heart rate monitor. It showed a steady heartbeat of 86. "At least her heart rate is good."

Nick shook his head. "She's no cheetah, Spots. It should be twice as high. The normal resting heart rate of a bunny is at least 180."

Clawhauser's face fell. "Oh."

"And it can go up as high as 350."

"No wonder she's always so high strung," Delgato said. "When I was working with her, it was tough to keep up. So much energy …"

"And yet so little," Nick said, looking at the picture of pure frailty that was Judy.

"Don't say that!" Clawhauser shouted. "Our favorite bunny will pull through, you hear me?"

Nick gave a huge sigh. "I sure hope so."

"She gets the best care", Delgato said, "and she is …"

He was interrupted by the door opening, Turning around, Nick saw two mammals enter the room. And he had to fight his hardest to not let his face fall.

He had been sure they would come at one point during this day, but he had silently dreaded this very moment.

At soon as she had entered the antechamber, Bonnie Hopps literally jumped across the room to the window, peering through with a look of intense pain on her face. Stu Hopps followed a bit more sedately, but his features looked so hard that you could probably have broken a rock on them.

"Oh, Judy," Bonnie whimpered. Her throaty voice and swollen, bloodshot eyes made it evident that she had been crying a lot over the course of the last few hours.

Instead of walking to a spot next to his wife, Stu crossed the room to go to Nick, and to the fox's surprise, he took him in a warm embrace. "Thank you," he said simply.

Nick returned the hug silently. Bonnie walked over to join them in the embrace. Then, after they had disentangled, Nick motioned at his colleagues, who had watched the proceedings with obvious astonishment. He couldn't blame them. Two bunnies hugging a fox - not something to see every day. "Bonnie, Stu, meet my colleagues, Benjamin Clawhauser, Brian McHorn, and Frederick Delgato. Boys, this is Stuart Hopps and his wife Bonnie, from Bunnyburrow. They run a farm there. Best blueberries you can possibly imagine."

The three officers mumbled a greeting, obviously uncertain what to do. Nick caught the distinct impression that the three of them immediately felt the same trepidation he was feeling himself. Judy's parents had been over-protective during her childhood, and it had taken them years to come to terms with the fact that their beloved daughter was putting her life on the line in the name of law and order. Stu would have loved to see her become a carrot farmer like himself, but she had been having none of it. Judy was a trailblazer, and it take taken them a huge effort to simply being able to acknowledge the fact and yet get on with life.

Now this trailblazer was but an inch from death.

"Listen, Wilde," McHorn said, "I guess we should make a beeline for home. Roll call's early tomorrow."

Nick raised an eyebrow. He knew an evasive maneuver when he saw one. Roll call was at 9:00 am, so there should have been plenty of time for the three of them to stay a little bit longer. _Yeah, you jerks, and leave me here alone with the family_ , Nick thought. _At least, I get to sleep here. If I can._ "You should. Bogo wouldn't want half of Precinct One in tatters over visiting a hospital."

"We'll come back tomorrow," Delgato said. "Wouldn't want our favorite bunny to think we forgot about her." Nick knew the lion had said this for both him as well as her parents, wanting to let them know that Judy was well-liked within the ZPD.

After having said their farewells, the three big mammals left, and the three small ones remained. Nick turned towards the window, looking at Judy, trying his hardest not to betray his emotions. He felt absolutely frazzled. It was sheer force of will that kept him from collapsing. Never before had he been under such a strain.

 _No, you will not break down in front of Judy's parents!_

Both rabbits joined him in front of the window. Stu cleared his throat. "Thank you, Slick."

Bonnie added: "If not for you, she'd probably be dead."

Nick shrugged. What do you say to something like that? It's not that they were the only ones who'd miss her. "Glad I got to be there in time."

Bonnie looked around, spotting the suitcase, the blanket and the pillow, all stacked neatly on one of those enormous chairs. "Are you staying here?"

Nick nodded. "Our precinct's boss, Chief Bogo, specifically ordered me to."

"Why?"

 _How do I break this to them?_

"Well, as you know, the relationship I have with Judy is … special. Has been from Day One. She's been my partner ever since, and she's been my best friend ever since."

"And your Chief knows?"

" _Everybody_ knows. We are a team. We do everything together. We even spend a huge portion of our free time together. So it's only fitting that I'd be Precinct One's representative here."

"We know."

Nick looked at her in surprise. "You do?"

"Of course. Judy is talking about you all the time. Whenever she gives us a call, it's always 'Nick-did-this' and 'Nick-said-that.'" Bonnie gave him a smile. "One of her brothers, Billy - you remember Billy?" Nick nodded. She continued: "Billy has started to mock her for this. 'You'll be announcing your engagement any time soon' is one of his more harmless taunts."

He couldn't help it - he felt the heat of embarrassment consume him. His ears had surely turned twice as red as they usually were. "Don't you think …," he began.

Stu spoke up. "And he's right. Of our 276 surviving children, 68 are married. And none of them were talking about their future partners as often and as exuberant as Judy when she talks about you."

Nick had no idea what these comments meant, so he decided to try and lead the conversation into safer waters. "Anyway, the doctor said that she's stable, at least for now. He promised that she will receive the best treatment imaginable. He thinks he owes his job to her. After the Nighthowler case, a lot of predators were facing heaps of hostility in Zootopia. Her doctor was one of those who found themselves on the street, just because they were predators. When we managed to solve the Nighthowler case, when the names of predators had been cleared, he got reinstated. And he thinks he owes it to Judy." He decided not to mention Mr. Big and his influence on Judy's care and well-being. He didn't think knowing that their daughter was considered part of a mafia family would sit too well with Bonnie and Stu.

"And he owes it to you, too," Stu said.

"Yeah, okay, but he re-paid that debt months ago. He was the one who cut the bullet out of my shoulder. I visited Bunnyburrow during recovery. You remember, my arm in a sling?"

"Yes, we remember," Bonnie said with a smile. "We also remember that Judy told us that you caught the bullet for her."

This caught Nick completely on the wrong foot. Never, not in a million years, had he expected Judy to relate this story to her parent. Her over-protective, staunchly conservative parents, who would have given everything to prevent their daughter from the cesspool of violence, crime and abuse they thought Zootopia would be. Telling them that she had, indeed, been very close to death - it they were his parents, he would never have told them.

"It came as a shock to us," Bonnie continued. "Despite all her reassurances, we always felt that being a police officer is incredibly dangerous. That's why we were so opposed to the idea."

Stu took over. "But she's at least as stubborn as me, so, of course, there was no chance for us to change her mind. And then we found out that you saved her life." He turned towards Nick. "And ever since that day, we asked ourselves why you did it. And don't tell me that that's just what you do at the ZPD." Bonnie turned towards Nick, too, looking at him expectantly.

 _What the hell should I tell them now?_

 _Oh, fuck it! Stick with the truth! You got nothing to lose anyway!_

"I did it because I love your daughter."

He turned away from them, looking at Judy instead. "I did it because I couldn't stand the thought of losing her. I love her. I always have."

"Love as in like, or as in love?" Bonnie asked.

"Do you really need to ask?"

"Does she know?"

"No idea. Probably not." He smirked. "My past as a con-artist has made me somewhat of an expert at keeping my emotions in check."

"A bunny and a fox," Stu said.

Nick shrugged. "I've seen worse. When you've seen a moose dating an otter, you've seen it all."

"You know that nothing will come out of it?"

Nick snorted. "Of course nothing will come out of it! Do you really think I want to throw our lives away?"

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked.

"The moment I start dating Judy, that's the moment the ZPD will throw us out the door. Fraternization, as it is called, is a punishable offense. If we're unlucky, we might end up in jail." He finally turned towards both Hoppses. "And that's why I won't tell her. Not in a million years."

Nobody said a word, for at least two minutes, before Nick continued: "I seemed to have shocked you senseless. I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you the truth."

"The truth that you have fallen in love with our daughter," Stu said.

"That's it. Don't worry, Stu, you won't lose your daughter to a fox."

Stu took a deep breath. "You know, Nick, maybe I should."

Nick frowned. "Excuse me?"

"You are good for her", Stu said, "she says so herself. You are very helpful, you protect her. You even endure her family with dignity." He chuckled. "She had been dating a few bucks in high school, but none of those guys has made such an impression on Judy." He pointed at Bonnie. "This is why we invited you to the thirtieth anniversary of our wedding. Judy wouldn't have been that happy without you."

Nick nodded. Up to that point, Judy had taken him along when she wanted to visit Bunnyburrow. For their anniversary, Bonnie and Stu had personally invited him. Which had come as a huge surprise to both him and Judy.

Bonnie said: "We never explicitly asked her, but there's a reason why Billy thinks you are close to announcing your engagement. I have seen many love-struck bunnies in my time." She looked at Judy again. "She's one of them."

For a fleeting second, Nick felt a bubble of pure joy inside him, but it popped instantly. "That's nice to know, but it doesn't help me. Fraternization still is a punishable offense. And I'd rather die an unhappy fox than allow her to throw her childhood dream away."

Suddenly Bonnie placed her paw on his elbow. "And that's exactly why she's fallen in love with you. Because you care for her. You care for her more than you care for yourself. You stay here. You spend the rare time you have in hospital to look after her, when you should be out there, enjoying life. You care more for her wishes, her dreams, than for your own happiness."

"I never thought I would say this," Stu said, "but I have met no bunnies, not even her closest friends from school and college, who would have been willing to do for her _once_ what you do for her _each and every day_. You are good for her. Most bucks are not. You make her happy. Most bucks do not." He heaved a sigh. "Should you ask me for the paw of my daughter now, I'd probably say 'Yes.'"

"Despite me being a fox?" Nick asked with incredulity, trying to wrap his head around the fact that Judy's father, who had harbored resentment towards foxes for decades, had just basically invited him into his family.

"Yes. Maybe even because of it."

Nick groaned. "You know that this doesn't make things any easier."

"We know," Bonnie said. "But at least you know now." She looked at Judy and sighed. "Even if it is to no avail."

That was the last thing Nick had wanted to hear. "Don't say that! She will pull through!"

"Well, when you were forced to bury 68 of your children, you tend to get a more sober outlook on life."

"68?" Nick still couldn't get his head around these number.

"Yes. 64 we lost to myxomatosis. Two died in farming accidents, a further two succumbed to another rabbit disease called RHD." Bonnie sighed again. "She has always been the toughest of our children, but this …" She stepped over to the window and pressed one paw against the pane of glass. "Judy, my dear Judy! Mom's here!"

Nick walked closer to her. "I tried this one, too."

"Sometimes they listen," Bonnie said. "Judy, we came all the way from Bunnyburrow to visit you. We've taken a room in a nearby hotel, so we can stay by your side for as long as you need us."

Nick kept an eye on the heart rate monitor. Still going steady at about 88. He listened to Bonnie talk to her, but there was no reaction from Judy whatsoever. She lay still, unmoving. If not for the incessant beeping and hissing of the machines, Nick would have thought she had died already.

Stu walked up to his wife. "Bon, she isn't listening," he said quietly.

"How do you know?"

"Do you see any reaction?"

"Maybe she listens, but there is no reaction for us to see," Nick said, trying to be the reasonable guy here. "We can try and talk to her when she wakes up, but …"

He broke off when he found a small paw grab his. He looked at Bonnie, but she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were focused on something in the quarantine room. He tried to follow her gaze with his own, but found nothing amiss. Still the whirring, hissing, and beeping, still no further movement, still the monitors and their annoying …

The monitor …?

He looked at the heart rate monitor. It showed 100.

He looked down at Bonnie, who smiled encouragingly. "Uh, Judy, it's your big, dumb fox. I just came to see if you're okay. Thought you could sneak out that easily, eh? Not on my watch."

Bonnie kept squeezing his paw as they watched the heart rate climb to 112.

* * *

 **"Hope springs eternal in the mammal breast." (as Alexander Pope didn't say)**

 **This chapter has been surprisingly difficult to write. I knew what I wanted to say, but I had no idea how to say it. This really took two days of pondering.**

 **For your information, it is firmly believed that some coma patients do hear what is going on around them. There are documented cases of people even having followed the news or being able to re-tell stories told to them while they were in a vegetative state. Research is a bit iffy, because although there are documented cases, a lot of coma patients who woke up again say that they were unable to hear, see, or feel anything. It still is a lot of guesswork, but good enough as a plot device.**

 **And Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease, or RHD for short, is yet another illness that can befall rabbits. It is highly dangerous, with the mortality rate estimated to be around 90%. It leads to internal bleeding, fever, and a host of other symptoms often mistaken for other diseases. And again, there is no cure, only vaccination. (In Germany, it is commonly known as "Chinaseuche," as it was first attested in China.)**

 **Because this came up in one of the private messages: Yes, this story is complete, at least in my head. I know how many chapters the story will have, I know what will be in said chapters. All I need to do is write it down. And of course you can speculate on what will come - I have seen several, and I can just tell you, you couldn't be farther from the truth. And before you ask me for hints and pointers in regards of the story, well, that's for me to know and for you to find out! ;-)**

 **Yesterday was a very, very happy day. My wife told me that she had ordered the "Zootopia" DVD via internet. After listening to me gushing about the story for at least two weeks, she thought it might be just the thing to shut me up. Sorry, dear, not a chance in hell! Anyway, as you can probably imagine, I can't wait to lay my hands on the DVD. Still one month to go. (*sigh*)**

 **Please keep the reviews going strong!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	7. Chapter Seven - Getting Worse

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **The last chapter took me two days, this one took me two hours. The reason for this is that this one's really short. But as short as it is, it is vital to the story. Just read it, and you'll know what I mean.**

 **Number are climbing steadily, many thanks for that. 18 reviews, almost 3300 views, 36 favorites and 60 followers. I am more than content! This one's literally exploding in my hands!**

 **So, PointedHairJedi, you think you need to prevent me from seeing spoilers, or what? Relax, I know the movie like the back of my paw - thank God for transcripts! I watched the movie at our local cinema, and with the transcript, I know what's going on.**

 **Thanks, NikkiMarie1113, for your words of support.**

 **And now, on to lots of screaming …**

 **Zootopia is not some cartoon movie where you sing a little song and all your insipid dreams of owning it magically come true. So let it go!**

* * *

Chapter Seven

 **Getting Worse**

 _This is the sound of me wearing thin._

Hawthorne Heights: "Desperation" (Written by Hawthorne Heights, from the album "Fragile Future," Victory, 2008)

* * *

To Nick, the slight increase in heart rate seemed like a sign that things might take a turn for the better yet.

What he didn't know was that it was to be the last improvement he'd get to see.

To the contrary - Judy's condition gradually worsened over the course of the following week.

For nine days, he had stayed in the tiny antechamber, leaving it only to answer nature's call or to take a quick shower. He had eaten little and slept even less. The rings under his eyes would have put the Zoolympic Rings to shame. He had lost an enormous amount of weight, and his fur had completely lost its usual luster.

Just because there was no discernible improvement in Judy's condition. Rather, he was looking at deterioration.

Even talking to her had yielded no reaction whatsoever.

Her parents paid her a visit every day, sometimes talking to him, sometimes just sitting in the other chair in companionable silence. His workmates kept visiting her on a steady basis, providing him with food and words of comfort. Old friends of hers, school friends from Bunnyburrow, old companions from college, they all dropped by to offer words of comfort. Fru Fru, the daughter of Mr. Big, had been brought to the hospital three times. The second time, her tiny daughter Judy, called Ju Ju, was with her, obviously not understanding why her beloved godmother was in bed on the other side of the window, not reacting to her shouting.

None of them had any true words of comfort.

None of them knew how to help.

"No improvement?" Chief Bogo asked.

"None that I can see," Nick retorted. "I'm no expert, but when I look at Doctor Pawson, well, he doesn't look too happy."

"Understandable. I wouldn't be too happy either. I _am_ not too happy."

Nick heaved a sigh. "I guess you came here to remind me that I cannot dodge my duties much longer, right?"

Bogo looked down at Nick. "Actually, no. I told you to stay here as long as necessary, and my orders usually don't change that easy, or that fast." He knelt down to open the suitcase he had brought with him, taking a few pieces of paper. "I would have preferred to do it while you're both awake, but … you know how it is."

"You'd have preferred to do … what?"

"Well, I received a letter from the Mayor's office today. They agreed with my assessment, so I am now authorized to promote you. Congratulations, Lieutenant Wilde."

"Thank you, Chief," Nick said in a voice which carried no happiness at all. "I take it she was promoted, too."

"Of course."

Nick managed to put on a smile which even to him felt forced. "Must be nice, to fall asleep a Sergeant and to wake up a Lieutenant."

"That's one way to see it." He looked at Nick again. "The last days have been hard on you, Wilde."

Nick snorted. "How did you find out," he said in his most sarcastic voice. His shoulders slumped. "I am close to cracking, Chief."

"I can see that. Listen, do you really think you do yourself a favor if you stay here 24/7?"

"You told me to."

"I did. But I didn't think you would take it literally. I thought you would be wise enough to leave this room once in a while. Go sleep in a real bed for a change."

"Wouldn't make a difference, Chief. Whenever I close my eyes, I have nightmares. I cannot stop them. And I don't think this will change all that much when I'm at home in my bed."

Bogo waited a few seconds before saying: "Then why do I get the feeling that you are flogging yourself here?"

Nick shrugged. "I don't know. I have never faced something like this before. I have always been able to hide my feelings, to just go on, regardless of the obstacles life threw in my path. I simply cannot do it anymore. Not with her. And especially not …"

He broke off. Something was different.

 _The beeping …_

Instead of the rhythmic tone, there now was a sustained beep.

 _Oh, no! Please, no!_

He gaze shot up to the heart rate monitor. And sure enough, it showed a flatline.

"No!" he whispered.

Seconds later, the door into the antechamber opened with a bang, and Doctor Pawson entered without looking at them, followed by two interns and three nurses. They stormed through into the quarantine room and got to work immediately, using syringes to put more drugs into Judy's bloodstream. One of the interns prepared a defibrillator.

"NO!" Nick screamed, banging his clenched paw against the window. "JUDY!"

Suddenly, he felt two big hooves grabbing him, lifting him up. He immediately started thrashing and flailing, howling Judy's name.

"Cut it out, for God's sake," Bogo said between clenched teeth. It was incredibly hard to restrain the panicking fox. All his physical power seemed to no avail; Nick was threatening to slip out of his hooves. "Please, Nick, calm down!"

It had no discernable effect on Nick, he just kept struggling harder. And when the first application of the defibrillator yielded no result whatsoever, he became positively savage.

"JUDY! STAY WITH ME!"

Bogo put one arm around Nick's waist, holding him tight, while fumbling for a pouch on his utility belt. He took a small dart out of the pocket. It was one of two types that usually came with the standard tranquilizer gun, containing a tiny amount of a very potent sedative.

The intern applied the defibrillator again.

And again, nothing happened.

"NO! PLEASE, GOD, NO!"

Nick hardly felt the tiny prick in his shoulder. He didn't hear Bogo's apology. All he saw was the tiny bunny.

The tiny, dying bunny.

"JUDY! NO!"

The world started turning sideways. A funny feeling overcame him. Sound was muffled. His vision blurred.

The intern used the defibrillator again.

No change.

Nick's world suddenly became pitch black.

* * *

 **Ouch!**

 **Will she survive?**

 **Stay tuned for the answer!**

 **The next chapter may take me a little bit longer - getting the tone right is crucial, so there may be some tweaking and tinkering involved.**

 **Please send me your reviews!**

 **Oh, and of course, take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	8. Chapter Eight - Bidding Farewell

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Evil Me has struck again! The last cliffhanger obviously caused some major disturbance in the force. The reviews I got from this are, dare I say it, really amusing. Of course, I can only say this because I know what's going to happen next. (It's obvious that there are some sadistic tendencies hidden deep within me! And I'm going to use each and every one of them! So, readers, beware!)**

 **Quick stats review: 26 reviews, almost 4000 views, 39 favorites and 65 followers. And the numbers keep climbing!**

 **Many thanks to you all for reviews, visits, and what have you. It makes all the effort I put into this a fun experience. Never thought it could feel this good! This really is the bomb!**

 **Thank you, Guest, for your review. Yes, I will continue with this story, don't you worry!**

 **Thanks also to Wolfman6969. YEEEEES! And just for the record, I'm a man! ;-)**

 **And a huge Thank You goes out to Rob876. Believe me, I have rarely been called brilliant!**

 **And yet another Thank You to all the other guys who sent their reviews. It gets a bit unwieldy to mention each and every one of you.**

 **Yet again, this chapter is really short. I wanted it to be longer, to be honest, but it didn't feel as good as this shorter version. This is why this new chapter didn't take all that long to write.**

 **And just so you know, I got to sing the "motto song" myself, years ago, as part of the choir I am a member of. Classical music at its very best!**

 **I do not own Zootopia, nor do I want to! Don't … tempt me, Frodo! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo … I would use this movie from a desire to do good … But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.**

* * *

Chapter Eight

 **Bidding Farewell**

 _Herr, lehre doch mich, dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss und mein Leben ein Ziel hat und ich davon muss._

Johannes Brahms: "Ein deutsches Requiem nach Worten der Heiligen Schrift," op. 45, 3rd movement (Composed by Johannes Brahms, lyrics: arranged by Brahms applying Psalm 39:4 ("Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am." - King James Bible)

* * *

After weeks of scorching sunshine, replaced by torrential downpour, replaced by scorching sunshine yet again, the weather had finally decided to be just fine. Temperatures were agreeable to most mammals, the sun was shining, the weather was just perfect.

As if it wanted to mock the inhabitants of Zootopia.

The weather didn't even register with Nick. It could have rained, he wouldn't have cared. He wouldn't have minded a blizzard. Even a sandstorm would have been fine with him.

The weather was not important. Because deep inside him, it felt like he was in eternal winter.

As if he would never be warm again.

He was dressed in his freshly pressed dress blues, his brand new rank insignia glinting in the sunlight, a black ribbon around his left arm. He held onto the arm of the rabbit standing next to him, as if this was the only thing that kept him from drowning. Sunglasses hid his bloodshot eyes. The rabbit was sobbing uncontrollably, as they were standing at the open grave, having accompanied Judy Hopps to her final resting place.

He looked down at the casket as it stood onto beams placed over the hole in the ground. It was tiny, just big enough for a bunny, yet to him, it meant the world.

A world which was about to be buried.

He barely listened to Mayor Lionheart deliver his speech about the tragedy of losing the first graduate of his Mammal Inclusion Initiative, about the tragedy of losing the first rabbit police officer, about the tragedy of losing a good friend, a good daughter, and one of Zootopia's finest defenders.

It certainly was a good speech, but he barely listened, because he didn't care.

When Judy had died, the world as he knew it had ended.

To be replaced with something much more empty.

Never again would he have to endure her piercing stare. Never again would he be subjected to her temper tantrums. Never again would he be able to mess with her head. Never again would he be listening to her joyous laughter. Never again would he be able to laugh at her awkwardness. Never again would he be able to just talk to her. Never again would he be able to hug her.

He would never get the chance to tell her that he loved her.

Some stupid virus had taken all this away from him.

Half of Zootopia seemed to be present. The funeral procession from the ZPD office, where the casket had been lying in repose, to the Savanna Central Cemetery had led them through streets lined with countless mammals. All of them had been silent, subdued. A lot of them had been crying. And he had seen them all. Judy's parents had asked him to walk alongside, as part of the family, instead of just walking with his co-workers.

There had been some known faces among the crowd. Nick had seen Finnick, standing in the first row, wearing his sunglasses alongside a black suit and a tie. They had exchanged a tiny nod. His mother Vivian had been weeping for a bunny she hadn't even met. Mr. and Mrs. Otterton had been there, as well as Flash Slothmore and his fiancée Priscilla Tripletoe. Fru Fru had been sobbing her tiny heart out while Mr. Big had watched the proceedings with a grave impression.

The shrew had stuck to his word. And the police had, surprisingly enough, played along. Probably for the first time in recorded history, the ZPD had worked together with a renowned crime boss to give Judy a funeral worthy for a king - no expenses had been spared. The casket was finest cocobolo hardwood, polished to a sheen. The tombstone was made out of Carrara marble and bore this inscription:

 **Judith Laverne Hopps**

 **Police Lieutenant, Zootopia Police Department**

 *** November 18, 1991 + July 29, 2020**

 **Beloved Daughter, Sister, and Friend**

 **"Anyone Can Be Anything"**

Nick looked at the words for a long time without really taking them in. They were just words, and words would never be enough to describe his Carrots.

After the Mayor had given his little speech, the honor guard - seven of his co-workers - stepped forward, armed with rifles. At the same time, four of Mr. Big's huge polar bear guards approached the casket. In his enormous voice, Chief Bogo gave the orders for a three-volley-salute while the polar bears lowered the casket into the hole.

Bonnie Hopps started sobbing harder than ever while she clung to his arm. Stu Hopps seemed to have spent his tears already, he just stared ahead with the eyes of a dead mammal.

As for Nick, each salute seemed to pierce him. The pain was much worse than when he had taken the bullet for Judy. Who was now dead, despite his hopes.

Their team was no more.

Bogo would certainly assign a new partner to him, although Nick would never want to work with a different partner.

But he would do it.

He understood what Bogo had told him. His heartthrob, Meredith, wouldn't have wanted him to quit. Judy had wanted Nick to become a police officer, and she would certainly not have wanted him to leave the police either.

He would stay, he would work with a different partner, he would continue doing his part to protect Zootopia.

He would do it for Judy. The bunny who had stolen his heart.

The thought alone felt like a heavy weight on his shoulder.

* * *

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	9. Interlude

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **This is not a new chapter, merely sort of a reminder,** **because this cropped up in some of the reviews!**

 **Did you, by any chance, fail to notice that I did NOT flag this story as complete yet?**

 **Did you honestly think I would kill Judy Hopps in my very first FanFiction story? Me, who ships Nick and Judy like there's no tomorrow?**

 **Until the next chapter!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	10. Chapter Nine - Rude Awakening

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Stats review: 35 reviews, more than 4800 views, 40 favorites and 66 followers.**

 **This Author's Note will not quite as funny as the previous ones. I'm sorry about that, but there are a few things I need to get off my chest.**

 **For your information, the previous chapter wasn't just some stupid spur-of-the-moment by yours truly. It was outlined and pre-sketched from the very beginning. When I began writing this story, it was always clear to me that it would contain one funeral scene as part of a longer sequence, intended as sort of an interlude before the story continues. A funeral scene which will serve a purpose later in this story. And, just to shock my readers senseless, I wanted it to be a closed chapter, so it wasn't clear at first sight if it was true or not.**

 **What happened a few minutes after I had published the chapter forced me to include the short interlude I have published instead of giving you Chapter Nine.**

 **I received a heap of reviews and private messages, some of them quite acerbic.**

 **Which got me thinking.**

 **I finally came to the conclusion that I have just overdone it. It obviously was naïve of me to be so blunt about this thing. I was really going for the shock value, which obviously caught a lot of you on the wrong foot.**

 **I do sincerely apologize for this. It wasn't my intention to annoy anyone, to the contrary. I write to entertain, not to annoy.**

 **Well, like a certain bunny would have said, we all make mistakes.**

 **To be honest, I felt so bad about this, I toyed with the thought of scrapping this whole thing, dismissing it as a bad idea. But I decided against it. I even decided to speed up publication of this chapter to clear up the mess I created. Because there still are a lot of people who told me that they love what I'm doing. I'm looking, in particular, at PointyHairedJedi, LucarioJV, Joel P (a lot of insight in a short commentary - color me impressed!), wolfman6969, AsekaSilver, and Chaos-Wolfy.**

 **And yes, I am also looking at you, Samiam2468. We may have been caught in some sort of misunderstanding, but I hope it's okay again.**

 **After all, it's only thanks to guys like you that this story's still alive.**

 **Just as Judy's alive.**

 **The disclaimer can be found in the first chapter.**

* * *

Chapter Nine

 **Rude Awakening**

 _Don't hang your head in sorrow and please don't cry._

Guns N' Roses: "Don't Cry" (Written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, from the album "Use Your Illusion I," Geffen, 1991)

* * *

"She went into cardiac arrest yesterday," Bogo said, looking at the bunny lying in the oversized bed in the quarantine room. "It took the doctors almost four minutes to get her heart beating again."

"That's long," Leodore Lionheart said, looking at his old friend from high school days.

"It is, but the CAT scan showed no brain damage, so no harm's been done." Bogo made a pause. "As a matter of fact, her vital signs have improved since then. Dr. Pawson said that he was, and I quote, cautiously optimistic."

"Really?"

"Yes. He seems to think that yesterday was the crisis. And if you manage to survive this, it gradually gets better. At least that's the theory. I admit that I know next to nothing about medicine, but Pawson was in a really good mood this morning."

Lionheart chuckled. "That good to hear. I hope she pulls through. If we lose such a good police officer, our first rabbit officer, such a well-known face, the impact on the public will be devastating. Especially since she's working with a predator. Speaking of the mammal, where is Nick Wilde?"

Bogo simply pointed at the chair. Wilde was lying on the seating surface, curled up, his tail around his body, fast asleep. The blanket was covering him so effectively, he could have been a pile of clothing. "He had to watch it, and he went absolutely berserk. I had to sedate him. He's sleeping now, for the first time in several days actually, as far as I know."

"Interesting. Did he stay here all the time?"

"Yes, he did. One of the nurses confirmed it."

"Why?"

Bogo sighed. "I don't know if I'm the right mammal to tell you."

Lionheart pondered on that for a moment, then he said: "He's in love with her, right?"

Bogo nodded. "Very astute, Leo."

"What about her?"

Bogo shrugged. "No idea." He made a pause, then he put on a tiny smile. "But just so you know, there is a betting pool going on at the ZPD."

"I thought betting's illegal for cops."

"It is, but what I don't know won't hurt me. Officially, I don't know about it. Off the record, I just … know."

"And you don't care."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with our work, I don't, yes."

"And what does this betting pool you don't know about tell you?"

"What could it possibly tell me? It revolves around the question whether or not they will at one point be a couple."

"Ah. And what are the odds?"

"Well, the last couple of days saw a massive increase in people betting their money on 'Yes.'"

"No surprise there." Lionheart looked at Wilde again. "This could be one heck of a story."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Adrian! You know what I mean! Our first two recruits from the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, prey and predator, bunny and fox, not only as a team, but as a couple. Heck of a story!"

"You think so?"

"I do."

Bogo grunted. "Well, I don't."

"Why?"

"Because there are still way too many mammals out there who think that relationships between prey and predator are just … wrong."

"Yes, and that's why we need a good example. To just show the people that there's nothing wrong with this."

Bogo shook his massive head. "I agree with you on the basic idea, but first of all, Homicide needs two good lieutenants. They both tend to fool around a lot, but they get their jobs done. Now, when you use them as an example to proof your point that anyone really can be anything, you may just as well remove them from the ZPD altogether. I don't think they'll have one second of peace after this goes public."

"You think so?"

"I _know_. There are just too many resentments. You remember what Bellwether did."

Lionheart made a face. "Don't remind me."

"And the press will make it even worse. Not to mention the fact that ZPD rules and regulations explicitly forbid intimate relationships between officers of the force."

"They do?"

"You didn't even know? Some thirty years ago, it was all over the news."

"What was all over the news?"

Bogo sighed. "It was a few years before I joined the ZPD. Back then, there were no rules against fraternizing with fellow officers, so there were several couples working on the force. It had always worked fine, up until that fateful day when one officer was killed in the line of duty, in front of her husband even. He wasn't able to bear it and snapped. Ran amuck in the ZPD's cafeteria, shot three officers dead and wounded four others before he could be brought down. Made some big news back then."

Lionheart nodded. "I remember. They banished firearms as a result, right?"

"They did, but that wasn't all they did. The City Council also decided that fraternization would be a punishable offense from that day forth, resulting in dishonorable discharge and maybe, if the cases were severe, even two years in jail." He pointed at Wilde. "If they should really at one point pursue a relationship, they need to do so in secrecy. The moment it comes out, they will lose their jobs, and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Wait a second! You're the Chief."

"Which doesn't elevate me over rules and regulations."

"Come on, AJ! This is such a good story!"

"I know, and I agree. But it so happens that I can't help. Besides, Wilde told me that he is in love with Hopps. She, however, has told nobody if she loves him, so we must assume for the moment that she doesn't. And we're back at square one."

"Damn! There is so much potential!"

"To you maybe. To them, it's just a catastrophe waiting to happen."

Lionheart sighed. "Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"Know that she's alive. You told me you had to sedate him while they were trying to reanimate her. Was he awake when they managed it?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, someone should tell him!"

"Probably. But only after he has slept in. He cannot have slept more than twelve hours over the course of the last ten days."

Both mammals looked at Wilde, sleeping peacefully.

Or maybe not quite so peacefully.

He was moving about quite strongly. His paws were constantly moving, his head bobbed up and down, and he even gave little yelps and the occasional whining

To Bogo, the whining was barely audible. The predator, however, had no problems hearing Nick whine.

"You call this a good, relaxing sleep?" Lionheart snorted. "The boy's having a nightmare."

"Probably. He told me he had nothing but nightmares recently."

"Well, we should wake him in any case." Lionheart walked over to the sleeping fox.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Lionheart, however, was undeterred. He approached the chair and put his massive paw on Wilde's shoulder. "Lieutenant Wilde, wake up!"

* * *

 _He would do it for Judy._

 _The thought alone felt like a heavy weight on his shoulder._

 _The weight was so enormous, it almost made his knees buckle. He looked around in irritation, but apart from Stu and Bonnie, there was no one in sight._

 _Yet the weight grew heavier by the second._

 _And now the weight started to move, shaking him. Not violently, but insistently._

 _He also heard a voice._

"… wake up!"

 _Nick made a frown. Why should he wake up? He was awake. He was …_

 _No, he wasn't._

 _Some small part of his mind told him that he was sleeping and having a nightmare._

Slowly, Nick opened his eyes. It took him a while to focus, and then …

… he stared into a face which could have accompanied him out of his nightmare.

It was huge, and it's large mouth contained a lot of big, sharp teeth, including two pair of enormous fangs.

His fight-or-flight instinct took over immediately.

"GAAAAAH!"

He pushed himself upward, away from the hideous face. Jumping up, his back collided with the backrest of his chair. The chair toppled over, taking Nick down with him.

The back of his head connected with the wall with a resounding crack.

And the world turned black again.

* * *

 **Ouch!**

 **I never quite understood how tiny mammals like Judy or Nick could ever feel comfortable around a huge predator like Lionheart. Just look at the scene in the movie, when Lionheart towers over Dr. Badger. I would have peed my pants!**

 **Again, apologies for the bluntness of the previous chapter. Just for your information, there is a happy end hidden somewhere down the road! Cross my heart and hope to die!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	11. Chapter Ten - One Up, One Down

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **And … everybody missed the cliffhanger! Hilarious!**

 **Honestly, were you so wrapped up in the previous two chapters, the crisis and the eventual solution, that you failed to notice …? No, I'm not going to spoil it for you. No one, I repeat, no one asked me about it in a review or PM. There was just one review which came somewhat close to the truth. Close, but no cigar.**

 **Like I said, hilarious!**

 **Quick stats update: 45 reviews, almost 6000 views, 41 favorites and 73 followers. The last chapters have really boosted this one into the stratosphere. But: "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." (Bachman Turner Overdrive, 1974. Man, I was just turning three that year! I am soooooo old!)**

 **Thanks to The Forgotten Doll for the review, and like I said, it's okay to hate me for "burying Judy" - I did hate myself, too.**

 **njlopez, I think we are talking past each other. You have valid points, but I think I have valid points, too. Your insight is much appreciated, still I hope you will not be cross with me if your input has no effect on this story. Like I said, it basically is complete and has been for quite a few days now. Besides, I am entertaining ideas for a sequel of sorts, where popularity becomes very, very important. It's not definite yet, but when the mood strikes me - after I'm done with this, obviously -, maybe I'll do a sequel.**

 **Thanks, dragonulera, but after the mayhem of yesterday, I just wanted to get this over with. That's why the chapter was much shorter than originally intended. But it contains all that it needs to contain. Maybe when I'm through with the story, maybe I will rework this to a proper, lengthy chapter. Or maybe not. Don't know yet.**

 **And a huge, and I mean, GINORMOUS shout goes out to Bibbilyboo, who was the only one to even mention the cliffhanger - but your deductions were still wrong, as you will see now. Be that as it may, kudos to you. And many thanks!**

 **Still, ownership of Zootopia is somewhat elusive. I mean, I keep trying to get it, but they won't let me!**

* * *

Chapter Ten

 **One Up, One Down**

 _I've left the world behind. I'm safe here in my mind._

Judas Priest: "Beyond the Realms of Death" (Written by Rob Halford and Les Binks, from the album "Stained Glass," Columbia Records/CBS Inc., 1978)

* * *

 _Blackness. No sense of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, of touch. Just blackness._

 _The eternal void._

 _Or … maybe not?_

 _Out of the blackness, a sound. No, not a sound, a voice._

"… should do it."

 _Should do what?_

"Slowly."

 _A different voice. Strong. Big. Male._

"This should work out fine."

 _The first voice again. Softer, no edge to it. Female._

 _Suddenly, taste. No, not a taste, more the absence of it._

 _Parched tongue. Like sandpaper._

 _Smell. Sterile. Unpleasant. Disgusting._

 _Touch. Someone touches. Soft. Fur on fur. A tiny prick._

 _Alright. All senses present and accounted for. All except one._

 _Now: Open eyelids!_

 _Oh, difficult. Heavy. Too heavy._

 _Better keep them closed._

"So, can we give it a go?"

 _The female voice again._

"I think so."

 _The male voice._

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey."

 _Female._

 _Wasn't this the stupid line from this movie, what was the name again? Right, "Kill Drill," the antelope bride on a tour of revenge._

 _Hey, I remember. Insane film. But funny, too. Good movie. Good memory._

 _If I can remember, I cannot be dead._

 _Or can I?_

 _Don't know yet. Need to open my eyes._

"Welcome back in the land of the living!"

 _The land of the living?_

 _Oh, I really am not dead._

 _Fine!_

 _Now, those pesky eyes._

Eyes opened. Very slowly.

"There," the female voice said. "That's great." A bright light appeared in front of the eyes. Wincing. "Pupillary light reflex is good." The light disappeared again.

Slowly, the eyes began to focus. Took in the room. The people around.

 _A nurse. Female. Looks like a koala._

 _On the other side, big. Male. Grizzly or some other sort of brown bear._

 _Hang on a second …_

 _I know this guy!_

 _Zachary Pawson, the doctor who extracted the bullet out of …_

 _NICK!_

 _He'd been there!_

 _He had found her!_

 _He had rescued her!_

 _Where was he?_

Judy Hopps started to speak, but found herself unable to. Her tongue felt like it had been blown up to three times the original size. Her whole mouth felt as if it had been exposed to Sahara Square' intense heat for far too long. "… water …"

The young nurse produced a feeding cup filled with water immediately. She lifted up Judy's head, helping her take a few sips.

"Take it slow," Pawson said. "You've been asleep for sixteen days."

She barely took in the doctor's words. Only one thought was on her mind. As soon as the nurse had taken away the cup and put her head back onto the pillow, Judy started to ask: "Where …" Her voice was weak, raspy.

"You are at Zootopia General Hospital," Pawson said. "You were brought here …"

Judy shook her head. "Where … Nick?"

The face of the grizzly fell.

And the police officer was instantly alert.

"Uhm, I don't think we should talk about …," the doctor began.

Judy took a deep breath, interrupting him rudely. "Where is Nick?" she demanded. Her voice was still raspy, yet she had the feeling that it would work well enough again soon.

"Oh dear!" the nurse said.

Pawson visibly braced himself. "There … there has been an accident."

"Accident?" Judy's voice became stronger by the second.

"Yes."

"On duty?"

"No, he was here, in this room over there." Pawson pointed over his shoulder in the direction of the antechamber.

All her thoughts vanished in an instant. "He was here?" She looked at the antechamber, now completely empty.

"Yes. He was here the whole time. He was watching over you."

 _He was watching over me?_

 _Why?_

 _I need to see him, now!_

"Where is he?"

"He actually is in the room next door," Pawson pointed in the other direction, away from the antechamber. "He had been asleep, then … someone startled him. He jumped and collided with a wall."

Judy just stared at him. "So?"

Pawson took a deep breath. "Nick Wilde crashed into the wall head-first. He suffered a basilar skull fracture and a traumatic brain injury, a heavy contusion. We tried to reduce the intercranial pressure through surgery. So far, his prognosis is promising. Still, we had to put him in a drug-induced coma."

Judy, understanding none of this, stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. "Huh?"

Pawson sighed. "He broke his skull, and his brain is bruised. Right now it looks like there was no lasting harm done, but with brain injuries, you never know." He put on something which closely resembled, but was not, a reassuring smile.

 _He had broken his skull!_

 _Oh, no!_

Judy was no expert in medicine, but she knew that head injuries were always bad, especially if the brain was also affected.

And Nick was so badly hurt that they needed to put him in a coma.

He had looked after her.

She needed to look after him.

"I want to see him."

Pawson shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow this. You've just survived the most dangerous disease that can befall rabbits. You were in a coma for sixteen and a half days. You are going to take it slow."

Judy's stare became a glare. "I! Want! To! See! Him!"

"No can do! I am sorry, but you will leave this bed only after I have allowed it. And that's the final word. You barely survived. You have used up all your life's luck over the course of the last sixteen days. If you refuse," he pointed at the IV bag still attached to her arm, "a little bit of ketamine added to the saline solution, and you should sleep like a baby."

She glared at him, but the moment she tried to lift herself from the bed, she knew that he was right. Because her arms refused to carry the weight of her torso. She collapsed onto the bed in resignation. It was obvious that she needed some time to return to her full strength.

She had barely survived. She had been sure that she would die.

She had survived because Nick had found her in time.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "How is he?"

Pawson shrugged. "As well as the circumstances allow for, I think. The MRI scans show only very small bleedings, so his memories, skills, and motor functions should be okay. But with brain injuries, you never know what happens. Mammals have survived headshots. Others have died months after receiving a simple blow to the head. There is no discernible rule. Some survive without problems, others are handicapped, yet others simply die."

"Will he die?"

"I don't know. I hope not." Suddenly Pawson put his giant paw on her own. "He was there the whole time. For eleven days, he had hardly left the room. He flatly refused to take the eyes off you."

"Why?"

Pawson shrugged. "You need to ask him when he awakes."

 _Nick …_

She had tried to tell him, when he had found her.

But she had been unable to.

And now, she had no idea when she was able to tell him.

 _If_ she would be able to tell him.

To tell him that she had fallen in love with him.

* * *

 **So, there we are! Out of the frying pan, and into the fire!**

 **Again, many thanks to all of you, many thanks for your contributions, your reviews, and your followership.**

 **Please send me your reviews!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	12. Chapter Eleven - Meeting and Losing

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Yeah, Despicable Me, I know!**

 **Yet, despite of what you might think, I had planned this from the get-go. Which only goes to show that I am quite the weird, demented [censored]!**

 **This chapter took a bit longer than the previous ones, just because my quirk has caught up with me. I told you that I like to put myself into the head of a protagonist to let him or her tell the story to me. Well, this method has bitten me on this one, big time. I basically had to scrap the whole, almost complete chapter and start anew, just because it didn't work and led me nowhere.**

 **The story is at a very crucial point right now anyway, so I have decided to take it a bit slower from now on. Don't expect me to publish chapters on a daily basis. The plot gets a bit sensitive right now, so I need to ponder on things a bit more than I have done during the last week.**

 **Up to 65 reviews and more than 7800 views now, and the numbers and favorites and followers has risen to 44 and 83 respectively. So glad that nobody wanted to abandon ship when I turned out to be a bunny-killing badass. To the contrary - the story had almost 2000 views per day three days ago, much more than I could ever have hoped for!**

 **I received a staggering amount of support, so much in fact that the author's notes would be far too long, if I mentioned each and every one of them on their own. So, here's a huge "THANK YOU" to Joel P, njlopez, PointyHairedJedi, Chica2702, JinoraGraceIlene, BlackimusPrime1, Antonio, RavenAndTheWolf, LucarioJV, one guest, another guest, hpalex13, Chuck testa, WhiteeFoxclaw1990, and StopIt2K16!**

 **However, there is one review I'd like to mention here, by the lunar queen. It was among the most heartwarming pieces of mail I've received in my entire life. Yes, I do like FanFiction. Always have and still do, despite being such an old geezer! You know why? Just read this:**

 **This is a little snippet out of a song named "Nessaya" by Peter Maffay, taken from the album "Tabaluga oder die Reise zur Vernunft." (Tabaluga or the Journey to Reason, Metronome Records, 1983. Music by Peter Maffay, Lyrics by Rolf Zuckowski.) The album tells the story of a little dragon named Tabaluga, the last of his kind, who is sent on a journey by his father Tyrion to learn what reason is. During his journey, he meets an insanely old turtle named Nessaya, who teaches Tabaluga that growing up sometimes isn't a goal worth achieving.** **This is an excerpt of the lyrics (plus translation):**

 **„** **Ich wollte nie erwachsen sein,**

 **Hab immer mich zur Wehr gesetzt.**

 **Von außen wurd' ich hart wie Stein,**

 **Und doch hat man mich oft verletzt.**

 **Irgendwo tief in mir**

 **Bin ich ein Kind geblieben.**

 **Erst dann, wenn ich's nicht mehr spüren kann,**

 **Weiß ich, es ist für mich zu spät."**

 ** _("I never wanted to grow up,_**

 ** _I always fought against it._**

 ** _My outside turned as hard as stone,_**

 ** _Yet I have been wounded many times._**

 ** _Somewhere deep inside of me_**

 ** _I have remained a child._**

 ** _Only when I'm no longer able to feel it,_**

 ** _I know it's too late for me.")_**

 **This song actually is one of my credos, one of the songs I live by.**

 **Please, the lunar queen, promise me to try and never forget what it's like to be a child! The accusation I probably hear most often is that I have never really grown up. However, I like to think it's for the better. Somewhere, not so deep inside of me, lives a little child, and comments like yours make him a very happy camper! Thank you so much!**

 **Do you honestly think I own Zootopia? I don't. I wouldn't be sitting in my room, typing this. I would be spending the millions and millions of dollars this movie yielded (it has just reached the one billion mark in box office revenue). By flying into space, perhaps?**

* * *

Chapter Eleven

 **Meeting and Losing**

 _I'm spending my time, watching the days go by. Feeling so small, I stare at the wall._

Roxette: "Spending My Time" (Written by Per Gessle and Mats Persson, from the album "Joyride," EMI, 1991)

* * *

On the one paw, it was a good thing that Dr. Pawson forced Judy to stay in bed. The sixteen days in coma had weakened her greatly. She had lost an enormous amount of weight, and since it took her two days to become accustomed to nice, tasty food again (she had to dine on hay and water exclusively for those two days), regaining her fighting weight was more difficult than she could have imagined.

On the other paw, being forced to stay in bed was the worst thing imaginable for her. Because it meant there was no way she could reach Nick.

True, everybody who visited her kept sort of a running commentary for her. Sadly, these commentaries did nothing to assuage her, to the contrary. After being forced to hear: "still in coma, nothing has changed" for five straight days, Judy became more frantic by the second.

Her fox was in a coma. She wasn't allowed to get up and see him, yet. There was nothing she could do to help him, to alleviate his pain. (McHorn had pointed out to her at one point that a mammal in coma doesn't feel pain, but she couldn't have cared less.) There was simply nothing she could do at all.

Except getting better.

At least in this regard, there were solid improvements. The swellings around her head had subsided almost completely, but breathing was still a bit difficult. There were no skin tumors, no danger of blindness or loss of hearing. As far as her healing was concerned, everything went swimmingly. The disease had come and gone, leaving nothing but an awful memory.

The news of the death of the Gnugandan bunny had shocked Judy deeply. She had hardly known him, yet she lamented his loss. After all, it hadn't been his fault that she had contracted his disease. It had been her fault, and her fault alone. She should have had her vaccination against myxomatosis and RHD in May, and now it was early August.

Her mother had read her the riot act for this. "We could have lost you, Judy," Bonnie had shouted at one point. Her parents had been deeply wounded by her negligence. And the worst thing about this was, Judy wasn't even able to contradict them. She had been negligent, and it had almost claimed her life.

Her other visitors had been much less acerbic. Chief Bogo had announced her promotion to Lieutenant. Clawhauser had brought a box of glazed doughnuts with pieces of carrots in them (and had eaten half of them himself, but to her, it was the gesture that counted). Her other co-workers had surprised her with a brand-new, ergonomic office chair (she had complained over her old one for years) which fit her perfectly. Fru Fru had been beside herself with joy that her "big Ju Ju" was alive and well again, which had caused Mr. Big to chuckle happily. Even Koslov had smiled at her, which still was a most disturbing sight, but he meant well - after all, he wasn't able to hide the fact that he was just a huge, mean-looking polar bear.

Finally, after five of the longest days Judy had ever had to endure, Dr. Pawson finally allowed her to leave her bed, if only to avail herself of the facilities. And of course, she had only one thought on her mind.

"I want to see Nick."

Pawson shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow it. You are still exuding viruses."

"So what?"

Pawson gave an exasperated sigh. After five days of constant nagging, the doctor's patience towards the rabbit was obviously starting to grow a little thin. "I cannot allow you to leave your room for a lengthy period of time. What if a bunny walks along and catches your virus?"

"Come on, Doctor! You told me that most bunnies in Zootopia are vaccinated. My parents are, too. Besides, are there even any bunnies here right now?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but you never know. Maybe a mailman bunny could come here."

"Just how likely is it for a bunny to cross the same corridor right after I passed through, much less an unvaccinated bunny?"

"It is highly unlikely, I admit, but …," Pawson broke off.

Seeing that convincing him through mere logic would not work, Judy resorted to the oldest trick in the book, the pleading eyes. It always worked on Nick, it would probably work on Pawson, too.

And it did. Pawson sighed. "Fine, but you will not go there alone. Nurse," he addressed the cougar who had accompanied him, "you will accompany Lieutenant Hopps. She is allowed to visit Lieutenant Wilde," he turned back to Judy, "but I cannot allow you stay for longer than fifteen minutes. You still need rest."

Judy nodded. Fifteen minutes. Not much, but it would suffice.

It just had to.

After having given Judy a surgical mask, the cougar led her through the corridor towards another room in the intensive care unit. The corridor was completely deserted, and given the fact that entering an intensive care unit was only permitted after visitors had undergone some very thorough procedures, she really couldn't understand Pawson's objections. Paranoia, probably.

The room they entered was empty, except for Nick of course. As far as she knew, the friends he had had during his former life as a con artist were no longer his friends, and most of his current friends, who were hers as well, those being their workmates, had left hours ago. He was lying in one of those oversized beds which were obviously built to accommodate a rhino, and he appeared to be in deep, peaceful slumber. Only his heart rate of 42 indicated that he wasn't in the best of shapes.

She slowly walked over to his bed, looking at him. His head was bandaged, but apart from that, he looked perfectly normal. Only the slightly discolored patches under his eyes indicated that not everything was alright. This and the IV bag connected to his left arm. And of course the numerous machines surrounding the bed.

 _He has aged_ , Judy thought.

He had indeed. Being eight years her senior, he had always looked older than she did, but now he did look _really_ old. As if the last days had heaped an additional twenty years of mileage on him. He had visibly lost weight, and his fur looked matted in places, as if he had neglected grooming.

Pawson had told her that Nick had spent her whole time in hospital, up until his accident, in the antechamber, eating little, sleeping even less. These few days had taken an enormous toll on him. Her handsome partner had all but vanished, being replaced by this sorry shell of a fox.

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed.

The nurse, whom she only knew as Leonora, nodded. "They told me he was quite handsome when he first got here." When Judy gave her a shrewd glance, she quickly added: "For a fox, that is."

Judy looked back at Nick. "That he was." _And still is, somehow_.

Despite his sorry state, she still loved the sight of him.

She had no idea how it had happened. They had been polar opposites - he was the sly fox, the con artist, the hustler, the bad boy, she was the dumb bunny, the naïve little hick, the goody-two-shoes, the wannabe cop. Cooperation between these polar opposites never works.

This one had worked pretty much from day one. And it had yielded spectacular results.

And she still didn't know why.

He should have been her worst nemesis.

Instead, he was her friend, her partner, her confidante.

And maybe even a bit more.

Maybe.

There was a level of trust and understanding between the two of them that simply was out of this world. And it had been like this from the start. She had known Nick for two days, after which they had been separated for almost three months, due to her stupidity during that dratted press conference.

And little more than a few hours after they had reconciled, she had allowed him to put his jaws around her neck.

She still couldn't get her head around the fact that she had willingly put her life in the hands of a fox she had barely even known.

He had repaid her trust with his own. He had trusted her judgment enough to leave his life of petty hustling behind to become a police officer.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

They had been the best partners one could hope for, and they had become the best of friends imaginable.

And at some point, friendship had turned into something more for her.

Friendship suddenly wasn't enough for her.

He had saved her life by taking a bullet for her. She had been angry beyond belief, but he had shown her his most stubborn side when she started berating him for his foolish action.

She had berated him because she had suddenly felt that losing this fox due to some idiotic act of heroism would hit her hard. Really, really hard.

Now he was lying in a hospital bed, in a drug-induced coma, with a brain injury so severe, it could lead to a lot of unpleasant repercussions, loss of memory, loss of senses, even paralysis.

Even death.

Her heart seemed to seize inside her chest when her thoughts got to this point.

Losing Nick …

Yes, she was an emotional bunny. This is why she had to fight with tears as she looked at the fox, unconscious in his giant bed.

She wanted to hold him tight, to embrace him, to kiss him, to love him.

When had their friendship turned into love?

She didn't know, and she didn't care.

She loved Nick Wilde with all of her heart.

This thought had bothered her for a few months now. She knew the laws, rules and regulations to the T, which is why she knew that pursuing a relationship with Nick was asking for trouble. She would never have dared to tell him what she truly thought of him. Rejection would have destroyed her, but even if he had reciprocated her feelings, it would have devastated her. Just because some stupid law told her that they could never be together.

She had never told him.

And now she might never be able to.

Contemplating her conundrum, she almost missed the door into the room opening. She turned around to see a fox enter the room.

It was a female red fox of strikingly similar appearance to Nick, maybe a bit smaller. But what really caught Judy's attention was the fact that this vixen looked frighteningly frail. While the ZPD training, hard work and occasional workouts had left Nick with a slim and fit body, she appeared to be so thin that a slight gust of wind would probably have blown her off the pavement and into the street. She seemed to be enormously fragile, her features were haggard, and if the bags under her eyes were any indication, she hadn't slept for weeks at least.

Upon seeing Judy and the nurse, she backed away immediately. "Sorry, didn't want to disturb you," she said quickly, proceeding to close the door again.

"Wait!" Judy shouted, and the vixen stopped dead in her tracks. "You are Mrs. Wilde, right?"

The door opened again, and the vixen entered, closing the door behind her. Approaching Judy, she looked down at her with what she obviously thought was a benevolent smile. To Judy, her haggard face looked more like the skull of a skeleton, like the ones she had seen at school. "And you must be Judy Hopps."

"I am," Judy said, offering her paw. "Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Wilde."

"The pleasure is mine, Ms. Hopps. And please, call me Vivian."

Judy gave her a smile. "Only if you call me Judy."

Vivian's smile widened. Her resemblance with a skull became even more pronounced. "That can be arranged, I think."

 _She is seriously ill_ , Judy thought. Her paw had felt as emaciated as her looks suggested. Her countenance, however, was cheerful. "So you are the bunny Nick's been talking about."

Judy grinned. "That would be me, yes."

Vivian chuckled. "I would have thought you were taller."

"Excuse me?"

"The way Nick talks about you, I had always figured you to be taller than him."

Judy shrugged. "Could be possible. He isn't overly tall for a fox. A few cousins of mine are really tall, even taller than Nick. So is my oldest brother. But that's the exception. Most rabbits are about my height."

"That wasn't what I meant, dear." Vivian gave another chuckle, a rich, twinkling sound.

"What _did_ you mean?"

Suddenly the vixen put on a smirk, and now her similarity with Nick became evident. It was the very same smirk Nick used whenever he was trying to annoy her. "Don't tell me you don't know."

"Know what?"

Vivian shrugged. "You work together with him, yet you don't know that he's your greatest fan? It's so obvious!"

"Oh."

Vivian laughed again. "The last time he visited me, he was talking about you so much, I finally said to him: 'Why don't you just marry her and be done with it?'"

Judy felt her ears heating up so much that she was sure the red hue could be seen through her fur.

 _"You'll be announcing your engagement any time soon."_

Whenever she went home or talked to her family via the phone, her brother Billy always liked to tease her when she was talking about Nick. Just because she was talking about her work, and talking about her work meant talking about Nick. Obviously. He was her partner, after all!

 _He has the same problem I have._

 _For the same reason?_

There was only one reason she talked so much about Nick: because she was in love with him. When she had been forced into a team with Delgato for almost four months, she had mentioned him two or three times during all of her phone calls, tops. She mentioned Nick in every phone call, at least three times.

 _Damn!_

It was quite the irony.

She had wanted to tell Nick for months that he was more to her than just her partner, just her friend, but she had never summoned enough courage to actually do it. To the contrary - everything she had said had sounded at one point as if she had actively tried to prevent a relationship.

All because she hadn't believed that he would reciprocate her feelings.

And now that his own mother had admitted, in a roundabout way, that he might really have more feelings for Judy, now she wouldn't dare and try to pursue a relationship with him.

All because of some idiotic rules that nobody really understood, made by mammals who had no clue what life was like outside of their ivory tower.

She opened her mouth to say something, to somehow deflect the situation, not even knowing what she could have said, but Vivian beat her to it. "I know, I know, these stupid rules the ZPD makes. You don't need to tell me. He told me all about it." She started to look at Judy, examining her, and Judy suddenly felt self-conscious. Clad in just a hospital gown, with the stupid surgical mask covering most of her face, she must have cut a pathetic figure. "You've been here, too?" the vixen asked.

Judy nodded. "I was ill, some stupid bunny disease. Nick cared for me." She turned towards him. "Until something happened."

"Yeah," Vivian said, turning towards the nurse. "I just heard he has a broken skull and some diffuse brain injury, but nobody told me how it happened."

"Me neither," Judy said, also turning towards Leonora.

The cougar smiled. "I haven't been there, but my colleagues told me that they had to sedate him, and when Mayor Lionheart tried to wake him, he panicked, jump up in fright and crashed head-first into a wall."

Judy stared at her, open-mouthed. "Wait a second. You've lost me at 'they had to sedate him.' Why did they have to sedate him?"

"Because of your cardiac arrest, of course."

For a second, Judy thought her ears had failed her. "Cardiac … arrest?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Leonora seemed to be completely unperturbed by the dangerous edge that had crept into Judy's voice. She continued, almost cheerful: "You went into cardiac arrest for almost four minutes. And he had to watch it."

"WHAT!"

Both Judy and Vivian had shouted the word at the exact same time, but it was Judy who continued alone: "I was basically _dead_ for four minutes, and nobody deemed it necessary to tell me?"

Leonora's smile vanished, and she visibly faltered. "I thought somebody had told you."

"No," said Judy between clenched teeth.

Vivian piped in. "She went into cardiac arrest, and he had to watch it?"

"Yeah, he had stayed in the antechamber of the quarantine room all the time. Of course he would see things like that. And he panicked completely. Your boss, er, what was his name again?"

"Chief Bogo," Judy said.

"Yeah, him. He sedated him with some dart out of his tranq gun. He slept for, oh, I don't know, some fourteen hours at least. Mayor Lionheart was visiting you at that time, and he tried to wake him up. But he seemed to have startled him, because …," she broke off, slowly turning towards Nick.

Irritated, Judy followed her movement, looking for changes. There were none. The machines were still hissing, whirring, and beeping.

And yet, something was different …

 _The heart rate monitor!_

48 … 55 … 63 … 67 … 70 …

"I think he's waking up," the nurse said, walking over and pressing a button on the wall.

A few seconds later, Pawson's voice filled the room. " _What is it?_ "

"I think our sleeping beauty is waking up. Heart rate is climbing."

Pawson gave a most colorful curse. " _He should be asleep! This is too early! I'm coming over!_ "

Leonora walked over to Nick's bed, where the fox indeed started to stir, moaning and whining. "It's okay, Mr. Wilde. You are in Zootopia Central. There has been an accident."

Green eyes opened slowly, unfocussed. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. Then his eyes came to rest on Judy.

But there was no recognition in his eyes.

Judy's heart seemed to freeze in her chest.

Nick's gaze proceeded to scan the room, finally looking at his mother. "Mom?" he whispered.

"Yes, my dear Nick," Vivian said, smiling.

"Why …," he whispered before his gaze returned to Judy.

Still, no recognition.

"Who the hell are you?"

Judy's face fell.

* * *

 **Like I said before, despicable Me!**

 **You may have noticed that I, unlike a lot of writers of other stories, left Nick's and Judy's ages as they were in the movie. In this story, Judy's 28 and Nick's 36. In my opinion, that's perfectly normal for a couple. My father was twelve years older than my mother, it's the other way round with my wife and me - I'm 44, she's 56. Still it works, and if it does work in real life, you can bet your behind that I will make it work in the realm of FanFiction!**

 **Well, that's it for this chapter! Stay tuned for more mayhem! And let me know what you think of this, okay? And if you have questions, just give me a shout!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	13. Chapter Twelve - Selfies

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **What can I say? I love cliffhangers!**

 **Do you know now why I named the story "Now Your Nightmare Comes to Life?"**

 **I was just ticking off boxes, asking myself: "What would I hate most? What are the plot turns they would make me cringe? What would be my worst nightmare concerning Zootopia?"**

 **The answers are very simple: Losing either Nick or Judy, and, of course, making it impossible for them to be in a relationship. Because I desperately WANT them to be a couple.**

 **But hey, circumstances are not in our favor now, eh?**

 **Or are they?**

 **Well, let's find out!**

 **Strange, that! I thought writing the next chapter would take me longer, yet I was done in less than three hours. Sometimes I really don't understand me.**

 **Quick stats update: Reviews have crept up to 76 and views to more than 8800; I'm looking at 50 favorites and 85 alerts. The numbers are climbing so fast, it makes me dizzy. *taking deep breaths* Okay, better now.**

 **A deep and heartfelt Thank You to all of you. I keep wanting to put this story aside for a few days, just to calm things down, to re-collect my wits, but you simply won't let me. Every time I read those reviews, I return to the story to write and write and write. You guys are killing me! Okay, you do it softly, still you kill me!**

 **A very special Thank You to all reviewers, namely LucarioJV, Joel P, PointyHairedJedi, hpalex13, Smile 456, RavenAndTheWolf, AsekaSilver, wolfman6969, The Forgotten Doll, Chaos-Wolfy and the lunar queen.**

 **Do I own Zootopia? Yes, yes I do. ("** ** _WHAT?_** **") Um, I mean (whoopsie), I am working on it. ("** ** _WHAT?_** **"). Er, no (double whoopsie), I am hoping to achieve it one day. ("** ** _WHAT?_** **") Uh, er, well (whoopsie number three-sie), no, I don't own Zootopia.**

 **And I certainly never will.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve

 **Selfies**

 _Ich mache tierisch gerne Selfies! Ich grinse in mein eignes Telefon. Ich mach ein Bild, und dann post' ich's auch schon. So schaut mir jeder zu bei allem, was ich tu._

Wise Guys: "Selfie" (Written by Daniel "Dän" Dickopf, from the album "Läuft bei euch," Universal, 2015. Translation: "I just love to take selfies! I grin into my own telephone. I take a picture and post it immediately. So everybody watches me do all the things I do." - Translation by yours truly.)

* * *

"Yes, it's retrograde amnesia, Chief. You're right." Dr. Pawson leaned back in his office chair and folded his paws over his substantial belly.

"Meaning he doesn't remember anything?" Bogo asked.

They were sitting in the doctor's office, the doctor, Chief Bogo, Vivian Wilde and Judy, who was no longer clad in the ridiculous hospital gown, but wearing a pajama adorned with a lot of tiny carrots. Bogo had taken in her appearance with a frown, but he hadn't made a comment. Probably for the better. Judy was feeling extremely antsy at the moment, and having a shouting match with her chief was among the last things she wanted to do. She was still wearing the surgical mask - Pawson had been absolutely adamant about this -, but at least she had been removed from the quarantine room to a regular one. Her parents still were the only bunnies who had the permission to visit her, but that was okay. She had never gotten to know a lot of rabbits in Zootopia, none of whom would be wanting to visit her anyway. So spreading myxomatosis to other bunnies was highly unlikely. After one more week, Pawson had reassured her, the virus would probably have run its course completely, so she would finally be allowed to leave this dratted hospital for good. Or rather, until the next injury she would suffer in the line of duty.

Pawson sighed. "Well, _anything_ is too strong a word. He remembers quite a lot actually, but I cannot pinpoint exactly how much he still knows and how much he cannot remember. There are a few things we know for certain: His semantic memory, meaning his knowledge of the world in general, is unaffected. His episodic memory, however, the memory of certain events, has been affected quite severely. For example, he does not remember being a police officer."

Judy closed her eyes. This of course meant he did not remember her.

"But he will remember," Bogo said.

"You never know. That's the problem with brain injuries. The same injury can have completely different outcomes. Some people remember everything, some lose part of their memories but are able to regain them quite quickly, some lose their memories forever. It usually depends on the extent of brain damage we are looking at, but even that changes between patients. There are mammals who suffered little bleeding, yet they lost most of their episodic memory. Others suffered extreme amounts of bleeding, yet their memories were fine."

Pawson pointed at a few pieces of paper lying on his desk. "On the upside, he has made remarkable progress when it comes to the basilar skull fracture, and his brain damage is superficial. His motor skills are completely fine and all his senses unaffected. He has merely lost some memories. And if I may dare a guess here, I'd say he'll be able to retrieve them quickly enough."

"But you are not certain."

"One can never be certain with injuries like these. There may even be some long-term repercussions we cannot foresee at this time."

"Such as?"

Pawson shrugged. "There are documented cases of mammals dying months after having suffered a minor brain tissue damage." Upon seeing the looks on their faces, he quickly added: "However, given his status, I think this won't be a problem for him."

Vivian cleared her throat. "Let's get back to the memory issues for a moment, shall we? Even if he doesn't regain his memories, he can still get them back through learning."

"Of course, but in most mammals, this doesn't work that well. Learning something anew is not the same as having previously known them. Every memory is closely connected to other memories. That's the amazing thing about brains - everything is connected. You connect a certain event with a smell, or a song you heard at that particular moment. Retrieving things like these is what makes each life a unique experience. Regaining this through re-learning is simply impossible."

Judy said silently: "So if he doesn't regain his memories, he will pretty much not be the same one he used to be."

"Exactly. Another problem is the mindset. I understand that the life he built over the last couple of years is completely different than the life he led before, correct?"

Judy nodded. "That is an understatement, doctor." She hesitated, but pushed forward. "Before I met him, he was a con artist. He reveled in scamming and hustling people. I forced him into helping me on my first case, and after I had gained his trust, I urged him to try and become a police officer. He did, and you know the rest. The old Nick Wilde has nothing on the new one. They are polar opposites."

Pawson had listened to this explanation with surprise etched on his face. "I see. Well, if that's the case, you have a lot of work to do."

"Meaning?" Bogo asked.

"Well, if he doesn't remember that he's a police officer, he's still in the mindset of being a con artist. Having him see that this is not the way to go, having him see that the correct path of life is being a member of the ZPD, it will take a lot of convincing on your part."

Judy just stared at him. Achieving that sounded pretty much impossible.

Yet, she had done it before.

She would just have to do it again.

* * *

Nick Wilde looked around. The room he was in had white walls, with no pictures on them. Everything looked sterile, and the disinfectants insulted his sensitive nose. There was nothing to take his agitated mind off things, not even a TV set.

 _What a bleak place to be in!_

Unfortunately, there was not a way out for him.

The doctor, some guy called Pawson, had told him in no uncertain terms that he would stay in this bed for the foreseeable future.

And he was right. A broken skull wasn't something to trifle with.

He wondered how he had suffered this injury. A failed scam? An angry customer beating him up?

He knew he had amnesia. He knew that there were memories that were lost.

Yet thinking that it was the Mayor of Zootopia, of all mammals, who was responsible for his broken skull and the loss of memories - this was just too ludicrous to believe.

 _Come on! How many con artists have ever talked to Leodore Lionheart face-to-face?_

But that was the exact problem. This huge cop, Chief Pogo or whatever his name was, had told him that he wasn't a con artist, but a cop.

 _A cop? Me? You gotta be kidding me!_

Maybe this was all just a dream. Maybe Finnick had clobbered him over the head a few times too often with this baseball bat of his.

Finnick would probably know what to do. He had helped him, he had picked him out of the gutter and taught him everything he knew. They were a great team, always have been, always would be.

Strange that he wasn't here.

Instead he had been looking at a bunny. A bunny who, according to Chief Logo, was also a cop. A cop and his partner on the force.

 _Ludicrous! Completely and utterly bonkers!_

Nothing made sense.

What struck him most was that, for the first time in his life, nobody had given him the condescending stare he had grown accustomed to. He had gotten said stare so often in his life, it hardly even registered with him anymore. The kind of stare that said, very plainly: ' _I do not trust you, because you are a fox_.'

As if this was anything he was out of his own volition.

Chief Buffalo-Butt had addressed him as "Lieutenant Wilde."

He had no idea what a Lieutenant was, what kind of a rank …

 _Lieutenant - commissioned officer in most armed forces or police. Fifth-highest of the ranks in the Zootopia Police Department. Usually leading investigative commands or work shifts …_

 _Now where had that come from?_

So, okay, maybe he knew what a Lieutenant was, but there was no chance that he would ever be something like this.

No chance in hell.

There was a soft knock at the door, but before he was able to say anything, it opened, but there was no one entering, which struck him as odd. Only when Nick saw black tips on long, gray ears, did he understand.

The bunny was back.

Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She was kind, she was friendly, and she was cute.

But she was a cop.

Enough reason to be wary.

The bunny climbed into one of those oversized chairs. She had changed into a black pajama, with countless carrots printed on it. It looked strangely fitting on her. CUUUU-UTE! Even the ridiculous surgical mask that covered most of her face did little to spoil the overall impression of cuteness.

He was very quick at finding nicknames for people, and he had a knack for picking some which were borderline insulting. Hers, he knew immediately.

"So, what's up, Carrots?"

With lightning speed, she turned her head towards him, but to his surprise, there was no annoyance at the demeaning nickname. Instead she said: "Yes, I'm Carrots, remember?"

He frowned. She wasn't insulted. Well, he liked a challenge. "Remember what, Fluff?"

The bunny hesitated, looked at him, then she gave a tiny shrug. "Forget it."

 _She doesn't feel insulted when I call her Carrots. She doesn't feel insulted when I call her Fluff. And I get the feeling she will not be insulted when I call her Fluff-Butt._

 _This is going to be interesting._

"So, Nick," the bunny began, "you don't remember me at all, do you?"

He shook his head, but instantly regretted the move, as it multiplied the nagging headache that kept bothering him. It took him all of his years of experience as a professional con arties to not wince.

Yet he wasn't able to fool the rabbit. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? No, no, I'm not. I broke my skull, remember?"

She nodded slowly, then seemed to have reached a decision. "Well, if you don't remember me, I think it's time for proper introductions." She held out a paw. "Lieutenant Judy Hopps, ZPD."

He raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"

"What? I mean, yeah, of course I am. My name's Judy Hopps, and I'm a police officer working at the ZPD."

He let out a guffaw. "Come on! A bunny as a cop?" He sighed. "This world is going absolutely bananas."

Instead of answering his barely veiled insults, she simply held something out for him. It was a phone. "Here, take it."

He took the smartphone, frowning. "And what shall I do with it?"

"Look at it."

He looked down at the phone. A Carrot iPhone. Of course. He had a similar one. This one was locked. "Uh, Carrots, it's locked."

She just stared at him with those huge eyes. Yep, it's confirmed, cute. He looked down at the phone again.

And, with instinctive certainty, he typed in "84NICK0203."

And the phone was unlocked.

And the background picture showed a selfie depicting a bunny wearing a police uniform …

Hugging a red fox wearing a similar uniform.

He looked at the picture, then at the bunny, staring at her in shock.

He had just unlocked a phone he had never held, on his first try.

With his birthday and first name.

And his face was the first thing you saw when you turned it on.

She seemed completely unperturbed. "Go on, open the pictures folder."

He did, and he was greeted by more pictures, of just him, or him and the bunny.

They were hugging.

They were sharing a milkshake (looked like a carrot milkshake, ugh, he hated that stuff!) using two straws.

She was riding piggy-back on him.

They were sharing a picnic.

A video of him playing guitar.

He was painting a room.

She was painting a room.

Both were covered in paint.

She planted a kiss on the top of his head.

He planted a kiss on the top of hers.

 _If this is a scam, it's the best one I've ever seen._

"Are you trying to tell me that we were close?"

She hesitated. "You could say that."

"Ah," he said noncommittally.

 _I should remember._

 _But I don't._

He returned the phone to her. "Sorry, but if that was intended to give my memories a wake-up-call, it has failed, Carrots."

She shrugged. "Worth a try."

"Why's your password my first name and birthday?"

She gave him a radiant smile, or rather, he assumed she did - the mask hid her mouth to perfection. "Because of the same reason why your password is my first name and birthday."

He leaned back onto his pillow. "So, yeah, I take it, we were close. And unless this was the best of scams I have ever seen, I am a police officer."

"You are."

"But I don't remember."

Suddenly he felt a tiny paw on his.

"You will, Nick Wilde. You will."

 _Yes, I will make you remember me, Nicholas Piberius Wilde!_

 _If it's the last thing I do!_

* * *

 **What? No cliffhanger? Shame on you, Jens!**

 **Well, what can I say in my defense? I tried, I really did, but there was nothing forthcoming.**

 **Yes, in my story, Nick's birthday is February 3 (my wife's birthday), 1984. I had to go back to chapter Eight to retcon Judy's birthday from November 18, 1992 to 1991, because I claimed yesterday that her age was 28. When she is born in November, and the story takes place in July/August, she would be 27.**

 **By the way, November 18's my birthday. Scorpio and indifferent about it. ;-)**

 **One last word on the motto song: Since buying myself a smartphone a few years ago, I took a grand total of 1 (one) selfie. I just don't like 'em too much, and I would certainly never take some to post them on the internet, since I'm quite a private person. However, I was trying my hands at photo editing at that time, and for some reason I still don't fully understand, I wanted to have a new avatar picture showing my real face. So, after some heavy-duty tinkering with it, I had indeed come up with something I liked, much to my surprise, so it really ended up becoming my new avatar picture. Still, I tinkered with it so much, I doubt that you'd be able to identify me, should we meet each other. At least I hope so. Might have shot myself in the knee with that one, I guess …**

 **Yet again, thanks to you all for reading this. This had been an absolute riot so far, and it promises to get even better!**

 **Please take your time and send me a review!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	14. Chapter Thirteen - Painful Explanations

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **And yet another chapter done - the infamous thirteenth! (13 actually is sort of a lucky number for me. A lot of good things happened to me on the thirteenth day of months.) When will the fun ever stop?**

 **Quick stats update: Reviews stand at 80, views at about 10,000, favorites at 50 and alerts at 92. Will this insanity ever end?**

 **Thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing. Special thanks go out to LucarioJV, Bukoya, Chaos-Wolfy and hpalex13 for their reviews!**

 **I don't feel much like explaining things - I have quite the busy schedule at the moment, so let's just get crackin'!**

 **If I sell all my belongings, will it be enough for me to buy Zootopia? I don't think so!**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

 **Painful Explanations**

 _Mama, ohh! Didn't mean to make you cry! If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters._

Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Written by Freddie Mercury, from the album "A Night at the Opera," EMI/Elektra, 1975)

* * *

Of course Judy embarked on her new mission immediately, and she went at it with full steam: Make Nick Wilde remember me.

As Judy found out the hard way, however, _wanting_ someone to remember is the easy part.

 _Making_ someone remember - ay, there's the rub!

No matter what she tried, no matter what she told Nick, nothing would stir his buried memories.

Sure, he remembered tiny bits and pieces. His knowledge of police procedures and teaching from his time at the Academy was almost intact, surprisingly enough. Yet at the same time, he completely failed to recognize any of their co-workers. The events which had led to him wanting to become a police officer were, for the moment at least, irretrievable.

It was as if the last five years of personal life never happened.

Which had a lot of rather unpleasant repercussions.

Sure, he treated Judy nicely enough, but towards everybody else, he was strangely indifferent. Even worse, he had made a full return to the mannerisms of his days as a hustler, the sarcastic remark, the smirk indicating mischievousness, the patronizing tone. He still seemed to think that everybody was out there to get to him. His mindset was that of somebody who was forced to fight the whole world, who had resigned to this fate, and who had then begun to treat the world at large, the world in which a shifty, untrustworthy fox had no place, with utter contempt.

It was fortunate for everyone involved that nobody held it against him, because at some point it pretty much seemed as if it was his lifetime ambition to thoroughly antagonize everybody who was involved with him, everybody who had meant something to him at some point, with the sole exception of Judy, whom he seemed to spare. Although this was probably more due to her than to him. He used every demeaning nickname for rabbits in existence, (and some he had probably invented himself), but Judy had gotten used to this over the years - she even sort of liked it. She would give everybody a thorough facial makeover who called her Carrots, which in its essence was little more than a speciesist slur against rabbits. Everybody except Nick. He was the only one who was allowed to call her Carrots. So no matter what he would try, nothing would be able to antagonize Judy.

The only thing that really antagonized her was the way he treated his own mother. Judy had the impression that if he was allowed to leave his room, he would have actively avoided her.

Strangely, however, this did not deter Vivian Wilde at all. She still visited him every day, she was always smiling, always supportive. Judy was able to see the similarities between her and Nick - the pre-amnesia Nick - with ease. Listening to her was like listening to Nick tell her stories from his dark past - matter-of-factly, truthful, always with a hint of a smile.

Three days into her mission (it sort of amused Judy that she was thinking of it like this), progress was virtually non-existent, but not for lack of trying. Combined trying, because Vivian and Judy had spent three straight hours talking to Nick, trying to jog his memory. With no success whatsoever. Judy was tired, and guessing by the way her shoulders sagged, so was Vivian.

Judy looked at her wristwatch. 4:35 pm. Looking at Vivian, she made a quick decision.

"Okay, Nick, you really don't want to talk about it?" Vivian and herself had tried to get him to talk about some of the hustles he had performed with Finnick. And Nick had persistently shot down every attempt. It was as if he was unwilling to talk about his shady past in front of a police officer.

He heaved a sigh. "Finally, Fluff-Butt! I didn't think you'd get the message."

For a fleeting second, Judy felt annoyance creep into her thoughts, but she quickly quelled it. "Fine. We'll be back tomorrow."

He made a face. "Do you really think it's necessary?"

"I do." She looked at Vivian. "You look like you could use a good cup of coffee."

Vivian looked at her in surprise, but she nodded. "I think I do, yes."

"I think the cafeteria's still serving."

Vivian climbed down from her chair, as did Judy. Saying their farewells to Nick, who just waved dismissively, they left the room to remain standing in front of the door.

Vivian looked at the door. "That's not my Nicky." She sighed. "It's as if I'm talking to a total stranger."

"Well, you haven't seen each other for more than twenty years."

"But we made up for this by talking for days. Days he doesn't remember."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Vivian nodded slowly. "You were serious about that coffee?"

"Sort of. I'm not allowed to go to the cafeteria yet. The doctor thinks I might still be exuding viruses."

"Is this disease of yours really that dangerous?"

"Oh, you can bet it is. It killed millions of bunnies. It almost killed me."

"Millions?"

"The last epidemic wiped out 147 millions in Bunnyburrow alone."

"Goodness gracious me! I think I understand why the doctor would want you to stay in your room."

"I do. But it tends to get annoying. Not to mention boring."

"That's why you are most happy to help me jog Nick's memory, to be able to leave your room."

"No. I just want my friend back."

"And I want my son back.

"Which makes us partners, right?"

Vivian gave her twinkling laughter. It sounded like a full set of bells chiming. "It does. Well, _partner_ , let's head to where the coffee is."

"Uh, Vivian, I don't think I should …"

"Nonsense." Vivian gave her a wink. "You can always say I took you hostage."

* * *

Fortunately, nobody stepped up to stop them going to the cafeteria. The spacious room was almost empty, which made it easy for Judy to balance two cups of coffee when returning to the fox-sized table near the back.

"Thank you, dear," Vivian said while taking her cup. "I didn't think rabbits drank coffee."

Judy jumped into the other chair. "Oh, it's decaf. Too much caffeine can kill a rabbit."

"My, you are quite delicate creatures."

Judy had to grin at that. "Well, out heart rate's off the charts and our digestive system a bit sensitive, but apart from that I'd like to think that rabbits are just as sturdy as foxes are."

Vivian gave a sigh. "Unfortunately, foxes aren't all that sturdy. Rabies, mange mite, toxocariasis, just to name a few problems."

Judy hesitated, but then she shrugged. "I don't know if I'm intrusive here, but you're ill, right?"

Vivian made a dismissive gesture. "It's only cancer."

Judy gasped. " _Only_ cancer?"

Vivian continued as if Judy hadn't spoken at all. "So it's not contagious." She shrugged. "It's merely killing me."

Judy couldn't believe the casual way in which Vivian talked about her own death. "It's … killing you?"

"Yes. My doctor said I have three months to live, tops." She took a sip from her coffee, then added matter-of-factly: "That was seven months ago."

"That's awful!" Judy blurted out, trying her hardest to collect herself. "I'm so sorry!"

Vivian smiled. "There's no need to be sorry for me, Judy. Twelve years ago, they first diagnosed me with renal cancer. I've had surgery and extensive treatment, but the cancer just kept coming back. Second time, it was stomach cancer. Third time, colon cancer. And after I had fought down that one, they finally found a brain tumor, sitting around here." She pointed at her forehead, above her right eye. "It's the kind of tumor that barely shows up on the MRI, so surgery is out of the question. Chemotherapy doesn't work either, and radiation therapy yielded little to no results so far. That was the point when I realized that I couldn't survive this, not in the long run. This was more than four years ago. So I've had four years to come to terms with the fact that my days are numbered. As a matter of fact, it's a miracle I'm still alive. Most mammals who suffer from that tumor die within two years."

"Does he know?" Judy asked soundlessly.

Vivian shrugged. "The old Nick knew. This Nick here … doesn't." She gave a harrumph. "And I don't think he cares. I rather think he prefers me being gone for good."

Judy didn't bother hiding her shock. "How can you say that?"

"Because it's the truth, and you know it." When Judy opened her mouth, she quickly added: "Don't try to pretend it isn't true - you've seen it for yourself. All he cares about right now is putting as much space between him and me as possible. Just as it has been for twenty years."

Judy shook her head. "What happened? Was it this awful?"

"He never told you?"

Judy managed a weak smile, hidden by the surgical mask she was still forced to wear. "No, he never talked about you. He always avoided talking about his past, or show me parts of it. This is why we never met before." Her smile vanished. "But I don't know why." She had a sudden realization. "Come to think of it, I know next to nothing about him."

"That's because he's deeply ashamed."

"He is?"

"Yes. You probably know that his past isn't exactly a Norman-Pigwell-painting."

"I do. He told me about the incident with the Junior Ranger Scouts."

"He did? Well, you should be proud, dear. If he trusts you enough to tell you this, he must really like you."

"I like to think that he does. Well, the old Nick, at least."

"That's his most painful memory, and also the point where we drifted apart."

Judy took a deep breath. It sounded like an awful story, and she wasn't sure if she was prepared to hear it, but she plunged ahead regardless. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"That depends. Do you want to hear it?"

Judy nodded quickly, before her guts failed her.

Vivian took another sip of her coffee. "Well, it really starts when I was in high school. My dad worked in construction, and he had this co-worker who totally swept me away. I was merely 16 back then, totally green, he was much older, 28 in fact, and he was gorgeous. Tall, for a red fox, that is, slender, great looks, and a witty, charming personality. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was pregnant. That put an end to my plans of becoming a nurse. Our parents forced us into marriage, so I became Mrs. Jason Wilde. Nick was born, and I couldn't have been happier.

"However, I quickly found out that Jason was far from being the perfect husband. He was fine most of the time, but he liked his liquor, and the older he became, the more he drank. When he was sober, he was the best husband and father you could wish for, but when he was drunk … Just ask Nick to show him the scars on his back."

"Scars?" Judy asked. "I saw him bare-chested several times; there were no scars."

"You saw him topless?"

Judy shrugged. "We went swimming. He was wearing swimming trunks, I was wearing a bikini."

"Ah. Well, his fur usually does a good job hiding them, but Nick has five sizeable scars on his upper back. Or was it seven? Eight? A lot, in any case. He cannot have been much older than five or so, when he did something really stupid. I don't even remember what it was, just some silly kids stuff. What I do remember is that we had to pay for the repairs, and I also remember that my husband was as drunk as a skunk - which probably is an insult to skunks, come to think of it. Anyway, he wanted to take Nick to task for what he had done. Nick has always been stubborn, so a shouting match ensued, until Jason lunged out and struck Nick down with a slap to the face. And while Nick was down on the ground, my husband proceeded to pull the belt out of his trousers." Vivian made a pause. "I think you can imagine the rest. Nick needed a lot, and I mean _a lot_ of stitches for the cuts on his back. He had to sleep on his stomach for weeks. From this day forth, Nick was mortally afraid of my husband, so he didn't dare doing anything even remotely shady.

"This went on for some eight months, I think. Until that fateful day when my husband beat me up." She rolled up the sleeve on her right arm. Judy noticed again how thin she was. On Vivian's upper arm, a long scar was barely hidden by her thin, wispy fur. "Again, I don't really remember the reason, but I do remember coming to in hospital. The police told me later that they had found Jason passed out on the couch, and Nick was cowering next to me, weeping his eyes out. After my husband had fallen into his drunken stupor, Nick had seized the opportunity to call both the ambulance and the police. My husband was arrested, and I was brought to hospital. My upper arm was broken, as well as four ribs. That's when I finally filed for divorce. I should have done it much earlier, but we all make mistakes. Fact is, when I returned home, my husband was gone."

"Completely?"

"Yes, completely. He realized what he had done, and he was deeply ashamed, so he never tried anything stupid. But he just couldn't stop drinking. Three years later, he caused a construction accident where he injured himself and four co-workers. The medics found a blood alcohol content of more than 0.2, so he was fired immediately, and the judge forced him to pay damages for pain and suffering. He couldn't afford those, so he knew no other alternative than to commit suicide."

Judy closed her eyes. She had always known that Nick had had a horrible childhood, but she could never have imagined it being that bad.

Vivian continued: "Anyway, with my husband gone, I suddenly needed money. And nobody was waiting for a 24-year-old single mother without a high school diploma or qualifications to her name. In other words, respectable jobs were virtually non-existent, and even not-so-respectable ones were scarce. In the end, I started working as a server in a night club."

"A night club?"

Vivian gave her a grin. "Yes. Most mammals may hold foxes in low esteem, yet they love looking at a sexy vixen in skimpy clothing."

"This is so cynical," Judy whispered.

Vivian shrugged. "Yet it's so true. It actually wasn't that bad. It paid the bills, and all I had to do was serve drinks and listen to inebriated idiots trying to put the moves on me. And since our bouncers were a sharp bunch, I never had anything to fear. I was working at night, and I got home just before Nick had to get up to go to school. While he was at school, I would sleep, and when he came back, lunch was ready. He did his homework while I did the chores, then he went to bed and I went to the club. That was how our life was like. There were days when my work sucked, a lot of them, but there was always Nicky. He would always shine a little light into my life."

She took a deep breath. "And then some bigot assholes who had the audacity to wear their prejudices on their sleeves and still call themselves Junior Ranger Scouts, they put out that light.

"Nick wasn't the same when he returned home that night. He refused to talk about it, and over the course of the next few weeks, he retreated into his shell completely. He had always been a good student, but suddenly his grades took a nosedive. He hardly talked to me anymore. He was still living with me, yet he was long gone.

"And one day, he was gone, literally this time. It actually was the day before he turned twelve. I still remember it was Friday, and I was looking forward to spending time with him on our weekend, celebrating his birthday. But on that fateful day, he didn't come home from school. I called the school, and they told me he hadn't been there for half a year."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me. He hadn't gone to school for half a year, without telling me. Of course, the school had tried to inform me, but Nick had intercepted all letters from school and burned them, and he had started taking all phone calls, telling the school I wasn't there and would call back. Which I never did because he never told me. And before you accuse me of negligence, I really had no idea. Nick played it perfectly. Every day, he pretended to do homework when he had in fact started his first sojourns into hustling and scamming. And on that fateful Friday in February 1996 he decided he had made enough money to leave me for good.

"I called the police, I called friends, co-workers, I asked customers in the night club, I even called the old co-workers of my ex-husband, and asked them to be on the lookout for Nick, but it was as if earth itself had opened up and swallowed him whole. After one year, the police closed the case, and that was it. For twenty years, he was as good as dead. Most of the time, I thought he really was, a victim of some hideous crime. I could never have imagined that he would have wanted to disappear."

"When did you find out he was alive?"

"After you solved the Missing Mammals case, of course."

She leaned back in her chair and smiled. "There I was, doing some ironing, watching TV, when they showed a press conference. I saw you talking yourself into trouble." Judy lowered her head in shame, but Vivian simply continued: "And there, in the background, a red fox. And I knew instantly that it was him. My Nicky. He wasn't introduced that day, as you may remember, but I knew it was him. Mothers know these things."

"But you didn't try to contact him."

"No, I didn't. How could I? I had no phone number, no address, and when I called the police, they told me they had nothing on him and couldn't tell me. They simply didn't realize that the Nicholas Wilde who had helped you was the same boy who had vanished two decades ago. Nobody realized it but me. But it didn't help me at all. On top of that, Nick had left me, not the other way round, so I had to operate under the assumption that he wanted to have nothing to do with me, that he wasn't willing to ever return to me. Much as I hated it, I couldn't do anything.

"In the end, it was Nick who sought contact, not me. Two years ago, he stood in my front door, wearing his uniform, carrying a huge bouquet of flowers, with tears in his eyes, simply saying: 'I'm sorry, mom.'"

Vivian wiped away a tear which had been rolling down her cheek, and Judy found to her dismay that her surgical mask was soaked with her own tears. _Stupid emotional bunny!_

Vivian continued: "For one week, he paid me a visit every day, giving me an thorough account of what he had done and why he had done it. And he asked for forgiveness. Which I gave him immediately. I already knew I was dying back then, and I want to leave this place at peace with myself and the world. He actually was the last piece missing. When I die, I die a content old girl."

"Why did he do it?"

"You mean, why did he leave, and why did he wait so long with coming back to me? Well, he left because he saw no future in trying to live a respectable life. In his opinion, the world was looking down at foxes with contempt, considering all of them as shifty and untrustworthy. So why try to be anything else?"

She emptied her cup. Judy hadn't even touched hers. "And as far as the waiting is concerned, well, Nick told me you had an accident some two years ago, right? A broken paw, if memory serves me right here."

Judy nodded. "And a concussion. A fleeing rhino had run me over. Could have been much worse."

Vivian grinned. "It obviously was your lucky rabbit's paw. Anyway, you were in hospital, and Zachary Pawson was responsible for surgery."

"You know Dr. Pawson?"

"Dear, when you spend most of your free time in hospital, you can't help but ending up on friendly terms with the mammals that work there. Zachary and I are on first-name terms."

"I see."

"Of course he met Nick during that time, seeing that Nick spent most of his free time here to pay you a visit, and Zachary told him that I was still alive and waiting for him to return to me. Which obviously came as a surprise to Nick. He had thought that I wanted to have nothing to do with him anymore, not after he had broken my heart twenty years earlier."

"How could he have thought so? You're _his mother_!"

"Judy, when you spend most of your life among mammals who can't stand the sight of you, you tend to develop a really cynical approach to other people's attitude towards you. Nick's very pessimistic, and he usually expects the worst to happen to him. The thought that I would ever be willing to forgive him hadn't even occurred to him."

"So Pawson told him you had cancer and …"

"Oh, Nick was very well aware of my condition."

"He was? I thought you'd told me …"

Vivian gave her a smile. "I did, but that's the strange part in all of this. Several years ago, he met a friend of mine by chance, a former workmate of mine who recognized him and told him that I was suffering from cancer. Nick asked him never to tell me that he found him. And then he started paying me back."

"How?"

"He wrote an official looking letter to me saying that I had won in a lottery, a monthly pension of 10,000 dollars. Strange, I thought back then, I have never played in a lottery in my life. But the letter seemed genuine, and after the first installment arrived, I stopped asking questions. Since that day, some ten years ago, I have received 10,000 dollars every month, without fail, without strings attached."

"And you never asked where this money came from?"

"I did at first, but I so needed the money. I had been able to lay aside some of the money I earned, but I had no health insurance, so with having to spend insane amounts of money on treatment, I was quickly facing bankruptcy. The money Nick sent me made sure I survived. He is the reason I'm still around. It wasn't enough in the long run, yet his gift gave me a few more precious years.

"And two years ago, when he had established himself as a police officer, having been promoted to Detective, and after Zachary had been able to convince him, he finally managed to overcome his feeling of guilt enough to go and visit me. We reconciled, and that basically is the end of the story."

"But he doesn't remember."

"Yeah, that's the problem. Not for me, I've already made my peace, but for him. That's why I'm pushing so hard for him to regain his memories. I want to still be alive when he comes around, and as you know, every day could be my last."

Judy leaned back. "I am so sorry for you."

Vivian grinned. "No need. I'm fine. Like I said, I have made my peace, and they have given me so much morphine that I hardly feel any pain. I'm more concerned about you."

"Me?"

"Yes. I can see in your eyes that you care for him deeply."

Judy lowered her head instinctively, as if trying to hide said eyes from the vixen. "I do," she whispered.

"And he cares for you. You are the one mammal that means the most to him. Not me, not any of his old friends and colleagues, not one of his current colleagues. You are the one that brought him out of the mess his life had been, and showed him a better future. He has the feeling he owes you his life, and it has dictated his every action ever since. The bullet he took for you was no coincidence. He would die for you, and he would die a content fox, knowing he was finally able to pay you back."

Judy felt fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, further wetting her fur and the stupid surgical mask. "I'm not that important. He did help me, he believed in me when no one else did."

"To him, you are that important. _You_ trusted _him_ when hardly anybody else was willing to do it. And he is that important to you. That's why you are such a great match."

Judy looked up again. Vivian looked at her, her haggard face the picture of pure compassion. "He is the right mammal for you. He loves you with all of his heart, and unless I'm very much mistaken, you love him as well, right?"

"I do," Judy whispered.

"And that's why we need to bring his memories back. The two of you, you belong together, rules and regulations be damned! Life is too short to spend it on wishful thinking, on pondering on the has-beens and what-ifs. Life is what you make of it. So grab it by the horns, fight for it, and make this fox yours! Please, promise this to me! Promise me that you will try your utmost to make my Nicky happy!" Vivian brought her paw up and placed it on Judy's arm.

Judy took a deep breath and put her other paw on Vivian's. "If he lets me, I will. And that's a promise."

* * *

 **I had imagined this chapter to be easier to write. Took me longer than I thought!**

 **Just so you know, when taking the dates for birthdays I used in this story, the day Nick disappeared had to be February 2, 1996, which was indeed a Friday.**

 **This chapter actually is the main reason why this round of proofreading and editing was so dear to me. It underwent some subtle changes which will be very important in "Hammer to Fall."**

 **Thanks for reading, and please, let me know what you think of this!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	15. Chapter Fourteen - Driving Him Away

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **And the mayhem continues … literally, at least for me!**

 **This chapter is yet another one which I had to re-write completely. I tried to tell the story from Judy's point of view, which didn't work one bit. But after switching to Nick, it still wasn't smooth sailing. This probably is one of my weaker chapters, but I needed a transition to the next phase of the story. Which is also the reason why the chapter itself is a bit on the shorter side - it's just as long as it needs to be.**

 **Because it came up in some of the reviews: You are not the only one susceptible to tears. I don't weep easily, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Especially when listening to really great music ("Music" by John Miles gets me every time) or watching certain movies (the ending of "Forrest Gump comes to mind). And I also do it when writing emotional scenes, like the previous one. I was literally shedding a few tears while writing about really horrible things.**

 **Last days' chapter earned my story more than 2000 views in little more than nine hours. This is insane! Just like the stats on the whole: 96 reviews, more than 12,700 views, 63 favorites, and 114 alerts. Never did I imagine I would one day look at numbers like this. This really is mayhem incarnate!**

 **I love it!**

 **Thanks to PointyHairedJedi, RavenAndTheWolf, LucarioJV, wolfman6969, QGD, NarutoNineTaleFox, one anonymous guest (I would love to answer your review personally!) and Herbert for their reviews! Writing this has been a lot of fun so far, and you are the reason!**

 **Why? Oh, why? Why was I born as me, and not as Byron Howard? Then I could claim that Zootopia's mine, all mine. (*sob*)**

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

 **Driving Him Away**

 _Why should I look at you when you make me hate you, too?_

Guns N' Roses: "Get in the Ring" (Written by Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan, from the album "Use Your Illusion II," Geffen, 1991)

* * *

"And this is our new office."

After having been released from hospital two days ago, both Judy and Nick currently were at Precinct One, City Center's ZPD office building. In yet another attempt to jog his memories, Judy was giving him the 25-cent tour.

Nick stopped in front of the glass door, looking at the name plate next to the door.

 **Homicide**

 **Lieutenant Judith L. Hopps**

 **Lieutenant Nicholas P. Wilde**

The plate looked brand-new, pristine. Testament to the fact that she - they - had indeed been freshly promoted.

"What does the L stand for, Carrots? Lucy?" he asked.

Judy sighed "Laverne."

He had to grin at that. " _Laverne_? Who on earth calls their kit Laverne?"

"My parents," Judy said softly.

He looked down at the rabbit, frowning. Yes, she was trying, but the longer he got to know her, the harder it obviously was for her to keep the façade of composure. She was in distress, a lot of it.

And he was the reason.

He really thought he should feel bad about it.

But he didn't.

Both had been released from hospital with a clean bill of health, although both of them were not yet cleared for duty. Which was obviously frustrating for Judy, who had told Nick that she felt as fit as a fiddle. For Nick, however, it was merely the truth - he was far from being fit for duty.

Maybe he would never be fit for duty again.

And he secretly thought that this might not be such a bad thing.

How could he be fit for duty if he didn't even believe it was his in the first place?

It didn't matter what Lieutenant Hopps - Judy - tried to show or tell him. It didn't matter if Chief Bozo or this Benjamin Whatshisname showed him around. It didn't matter that all his supposed co-workers tried to treat him with respect and friendliness. It all remained very obscure.

The whole concept of being a police officer was staggeringly alien to him. He was a con artist, not some goody-two-shoes trying to make the world a better place.

That idea had died when some idiotic bullies had forced a muzzle on him.

Judy had opened the door, entering the room. For one second, he contemplated just leaving her, the building and her life altogether, but when he heard her say "Wow!" his curiosity won, and he followed her into the office.

And stood rooted to the spot, eyes widening in surprise.

The first thing he noticed was that the room was slightly darker than most other offices in the building. The furniture was both stylish and modern, and the technical equipment state-of-the-art. And it was all adjusted to accommodate small animals like a rabbit or a fox. Every drawer was just the perfect height, every cabinet easily accessible, and the desks perfectly suited. One was a bit smaller, probably for Judy, the other one had just the perfect size for a fox.

This was probably the best workplace Nick had seen in his entire life. It was obvious that whoever funded the ZPD had gone to great lengths to make sure the occupants of this particular office had the best workplace conditions imaginable.

The room was filled with mementoes, mostly pictures. Judy was currently looking at one showing a host of small rabbits all waving at the camera.

Meanwhile, Nick was staring at a plaque that read "I 'Heart' Carrots," nailed to the wall above the taller desk. He shook his head. "I Love Carrots. You gotta be kidding me!" he said soundlessly.

However, he had obviously been loud enough to be heard by the long-eared rabbit. "You picked this yourself. I had nothing to do with it."

"I picked it?"

Judy managed a grin which looked forced to him. "Yep."

He shuddered. "The more I see and the more I listen to you, the less I think I am this guy who'd been working with you. I _hate_ carrots! They are the food …," He stopped upon seeing the pain on her face.

 _I call her Carrots. Which does not bother her at all._

 _Maybe this was my nickname for her._

 _Do I hate her?_

 _Definitely not. I have no reason to. She wants to do the right thing._

 _And does the wrong thing._

"Just so you know," she said with a strained, slightly trembling voice, "you've been sipping at least one carrot smoothie a day for at least one year."

He let out a guffaw. "Yeah, right! Next thing you tell me is that elephants can fly!"

She shrugged. "You can deny it, yet I know the truth."

He felt a wave of annoyance creep into his voice. She meant well, he knew it, but her condescending 'I know the truth' caught him on the wrong paw. "The truth? The truth is that you drag me along, showing me all these things, telling me that I should remember them, yet I don't. The guy you describe, he could not be farther away from me. It's as if you picked everything I like and dislike and built your version of Nick Wilde on the polar opposites. As far as I'm concerned, this is an exercise in futility." He snorted. "Honestly, Fluff, I have better things to do with my time."

She sighed and said, matter-of-factly: "Like selling pawpsicles to a horde of lemmings?"

He froze.

 _Did she really just say this?_

Judy continued: "Wasn't that your usual scam? Finnick pretending to be your son, so you could buy a jumbo pop from the elephant ice cream parlor? Melting it down in Sahara Square and going to Tundratown to refreeze it into tiny pawpsicles you could sell to gullible customers who had no idea that you had been violating so many health care guidelines?"

Nick took a step back. _How does she know?_

Judy, watching him retreat, turned away. "Making tons of money in the process. Money you needed to give to your mom so she could pay the medical bills. More than _one million bucks_ in fact."

She sighed again and walked over to her desk, sitting down. "And then I had to come up to you and ruin it all."

Nick just stared at her open-mouthed.

 _She knows my entire scam story! She knows of my mother!_

 _And she is a cop!_

 _And what did she mean, she ruined it all?_

Without looking at him, Judy continued: "I coerced you into helping me solve my first case. I threatened to arrest you for felony tax evasion. Wrong on a lot of accounts. I had no right to threaten you with arrest. While tax evasion may be a criminal offense, it is a federal offense, not a municipal one. Meaning I had no leg to stand on. But you didn't know."

She made a pause, and to his surprise, Nick saw tears running down her face. "I threatened to take everything away from you, and you had no choice but to come along. I threatened to kill your mother by forcing her to pay back the money you hadn't paid taxes on. I threatened you with jail time. But, and that is the amazing thing, you forgave me. You forgave me for basically trying to ruin your life."

She sniffed. "Where is the Nick I did all these things to? Where has he gone? Does he really not remember?"

Nick hesitated. "I … forgave you?"

"You did." Judy was positively sobbing now.

"Why?"

"Because deep down inside, you're not a hustler. Never were. You were a Junior Ranger Scout who had suffered horrible prejudice. Yet somewhere, deep inside, was a small boy who just wanted to help others. You wanted to do the right thing. But the world gave you no choice." She almost choked on her words. "I gave you that choice to become what you wanted to be when you were a little cub. I made you join the Police Academy. You excelled, finishing top of your class, and you became my partner. And my friend."

He felt as if the universe had just imploded on him.

 _She knows everything!_

She knew of his secret wish to become a Junior Ranger Scout, she probably knew the 'Muzzle Incident,' as he usually called it, she knew his innermost secrets, those he never told anyone. Not even his old buddy Finnick, wherever he was.

 _WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER HER?_

"My mother told you, right?" he asked flatly.

"Some of it. Do you even know she forgave you for leaving her, for vanishing without a trace." She made a pause. "Nick, she's dying!"

And all of a sudden, his suppressed anger erupted. "Do you think I don't know that?" he thundered. "For years, all I've done was trying to make as much money as possible, so she can survive!" He made a pause. "And you really tried to take it all away from me?"

"I did. I was desperate. Chief Bogo threatened to fire me. I knew no other way. If I had known back then …"

 _Well, maybe I have a reason to hate her._

"And yet you say I should trust you now?"

Judy looked up, staring at him with wide eyes. A tiny part of his brain told him that she was cute and he shouldn't be angry at her, but he was much to wound up to listen to his inner voice. He continued: "Why do you tell me this right now?"

"Because it's the truth, and I don't want this to be a secret between us."

He looked at her, his gaze hardening. "You know, I really don't see how I could have forgiven you."

"But you have!"

"How would I know?" Judy's ears turned pale. Nick continued: "Maybe it's just you telling me tall stories, knowing that I don't know better. How should I be able to tell the difference?" He looked around. "Maybe this is just one big hoax."

"It isn't!"

"Proof it!"

She sighed. "Nick, if all this," she made an encompassing gesture, indicating the whole room, "isn't proof enough, if all this doesn't convince you, how should I be able to do it?"

"I don't know. Try it."

Judy just shrugged.

Nick nodded. "That's exactly the answer I was expecting." He turned on his heel and stomped out of the room.

Judy jumped up. "Nick!" she shouted. "Where are you going?"

She reached the door in less than two seconds, but that was enough for him to round the corner. Judy sprinted after him, but when she reached the corner …

… she was looking at a group of tourists, obviously on a guided tour through Precinct One, led by Clawhauser.

Nick was nowhere to be seen.

"Ben!" Judy shouted, approaching Clawhauser. "Have you seen Nick?"

The cheetah frowned. "Er, no."

"Shit!" Judy ran around the group, hastening towards the exit.

She needn't have bothered. In the middle of the group, hidden by several taller mammals, Nick was watching her leave. When the group passed a junction, he left stealthily and went in a completely different direction.

The layout of the building was completely unfamiliar to him, but through a combination of wild guesses and sheer luck, he managed to give the usual routes a wide berth.

Disappearing without a trace still was a specialty of his. Some skills you never forget.

Via several staircases and long and spacious corridors, he finally came across an emergency exit in the basement. Pushing it open, he left the building without looking back.

He knew what he had to do.

* * *

 **Hey, the cliffhanger is back! I'm so glad! Thought it was ill!**

 **Like I said, a mere transitional chapter. Hope you like it anyway.**

 **Thank you for reading! Please review!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	16. Chapter Fifteen - Searching

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **And the plot thickens …**

 **This chapter begins a short series of homages to several great human beings and some other interesting stuff. I don't want to spoil the fun right now - just try and find all of them! At the end of the corresponding chapters, everything will be revealed, so read on …**

 **Quick stats update: 104 reviews, more than 14,100 views, 67 favorites, and 121 alerts. Words fail me … (This rarely happens to me, I usually suffer from verbal incontinence. ;-))**

 **Thanks for all the reviews, particularly to danielshillito, PointyHairedJedi, hpalex13, Bukoya, LucarioJV, easyodds2, Trooper9099, NarutoNineTaleFox, and tyrekem576.**

 **This is yet another short chapter. The next ones, I promise, will be longer. And less of a transition, more of solid story development.**

 **Speaking of story, we need to start with the chapter, don't you agree?**

 **Do not try to claim Zootopia as your own, or the only place you'll be selling stories is the prison cafeteria. (It's called a hustle, sweetheart!)**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen

 **Searching**

 _Es ist vorbei, und der Himmel ist schwarz, weil die Sonne hier nie wieder scheint. Es ist vorbei, doch ich hoffe, dass das, was uns trennte, uns wieder vereint._

Die Ärzte: "Nichts in der Welt" (Written by Farin Urlaub, from the album "Geräusch," Hot Action Records, 2003. Translation: "It is over, and the sky is black, because the sun will never shine again here. It is over, but I hope that whatever separated us will unite us again." - Translation by yours truly.)

* * *

"No." Chief Bogo shook his massive head. "I will NOT withdraw officers from other tasks to send them on a wild mammalhunt. Not when the mammal in question isn't exactly missing."

"But sir," Judy said hastily, "Nick is somewhere out there. And he …"

Bogo raised one hoof to silence her. "I know you're concerned about him, and I share your concerns. But where should he go? I don't think his colleagues of old will want to welcome him back with open arms."

"That's exactly the problem, Chief! Most hustlers hate him. He brought a lot of them to justice. I don't think the remaining guys will like him very much. And nobody will believe him when he says that he can't remember. Most of them are guys who punch first and never ask questions later."

"I know. And I don't like it either. The fact of the matter, however, is that with you two out of action, with Fangmeyer and Wolford on undercover mission, our staffing level is stretched to its limit. I simply cannot afford to withdraw more mammals to assist you in finding him. I will notify our patrols to keep a weather eye open, but that's all I can do." He made a tiny pause. "I'm sorry."

Judy wrung her paws nervously. "What about Finnick? His old buddy?"

Bogo shrugged. "He disappeared about 18 months ago, maybe even a bit earlier, I don't remember exactly."

Judy flinched. "What do you mean, he disappeared?"

"What I said. One day he was at his usual places, the next day he was gone. Vanished without a trace."

Judy made a face. Her chances of finding Nick were getting smaller by the minute. "But Nick will know where to find him."

"I wouldn't count on it. These hustlers, they know a thing or two about vanishing. If they don't want to be found, you'll not be able to find them. Wilde hasn't seen him in two years, you said. It seems to me that Finnick doesn't want to be found, and if that's the case, even Wilde will probably not be able to find him."

"So what do we do now?"

"What are our options? There are none. As far as we know, Wilde could just as easily have gone home. Have you tried looking there? You have a key to his place, haven't you?"

She sighed. "It was the first thing I tried. Nothing. I left a note, saying he should call me. I tried to call him myself, I texted him. Nothing." She paused. "And then I thought that maybe he doesn't remember his apartment, since he moved there three years ago. So I even went to the bridge he stayed under before. Again, nothing."

Bog gave her a stern look. "Then, I'm afraid, we've done all we can do at the moment."

"But sir …"

"No, Hopps. He wanted to go, and he doesn't want to be found at the moment, or we would have found him already. If he decides otherwise at one point, he'll make sure that we can find him. Until then, trying to find him is a waste of time and resources, and sadly, we have neither." Suddenly his features showed compassion. "Go home, Hopps. It'll sort itself out."

Judy sighed, knowing that Bogo was right. Twenty years of practice meant that Nick was very adept at vanishing in crowds, at disappearing from sight, at not standing out in a crowd. If he didn't want to be found, no police officer in the world would be able to find him.

She could only hope that he would return of his own volition.

* * *

Nick Wilde was strolling down the streets, paws in his pockets, whistling contentedly. Giving the cops the slip had been strangely satisfying. He still didn't believe for one second that he had been part of this group of dimwits. They had presented him with a lot of what they called "evidence," but all of this was easy to fabricate. Even the selfies on Judy's phone were no proof as such. Photos can be forged easily.

Approaching his destination, he looked around carefully before stepping into the somewhat darker dead-end street, only to stop in mid-stride.

There was no van with loud artwork in sight.

Nick looked around, surprised. Finnick usually preferred working in the early afternoon, and since it was late afternoon, it was much too late for him to still hustle. Which means that his van should have been at this very spot, its usual parking space, with Finnick sitting inside, knocking back a beer or two while counting the cash earned through his latest scam.

Only that it wasn't.

Nick scratched his head, thinking. If Finnick wasn't here, he was either still hustling (highly unlikely), running errands for Mr. Big (he had never worked for the arctic shrew, and they didn't get along too well, so that was also unlikely), or spending his hard-earned money on booze and gambling. And they were just three watering holes he usually frequented. Nick decided to pay each and every one of them a visit.

Only to find out after the third one that Finnick still insisted on being absent.

Worse yet, the barkeeper working in the third bar, some wolf Nick wasn't all that familiar with, told him that he hadn't seen Finnick in almost two years.

This was unexpected. And a problem.

 _What do I do now?_

Staying in the bar to drink a few beers had little appeal to him. Ever since being forced to endure abuse by his drunk father, drinking alcohol had been something he avoided whenever possible. Sure, he had shared one or two cans of beer with Finnick from time to time, but that was it.

Instead of staying, he left the bar and wandered aimlessly down the main road, passing shops and pedestrians. He had no idea where he was going, he just knew one thing: He would not set foot in this police building again.

He could have gone "home," but sleeping under the bridge was yet another prospect he didn't particularly cherish.

 _What do I do now?_

Suddenly he had the feeling of being watched.

Turning around slowly, it took him a while to notice that a small sheep was looking at him. He returned the stare, forcing his face into a smile. Something about the wooly lamb made him feel uneasy, but he couldn't put a digit on it.

The lamb looked at him in obvious wonderment. "You look like Tony Snark," the boy announced.

Nick turned his head quickly to verify the kid had indeed spoken to him. There was no one else around. The parents of this lamb in particular were nowhere to be seen. "Like who?"

"Tony Snark. The Iron Mammal."

This statement didn't help to clarify the situation. "The Iron … Mammal?"

"Yeah. He's this superhero, and he has this great suit. He can fly, and he has the coolest guns."

 _Great description!_ , Nick thought. _Should I tell him that I've no idea what he's talking about, or should I play along?_ Deciding on the latter, he said: "You know, I hear this quite a lot."

"They make a movie out of it now."

"Do they?" _Out of what? What the hell is this lamb prattling about?_

The lamb nodded vigorously. "I bet it's gonna be awesome!"

"I hope so," Nick said quickly, looking around. "Listen, Kid, where are your parents?"

The lamb pointed over his shoulder. "Oh, they're over there buying stuff."

Nick looked up to see a pair of sheep in a nearby clothing store. "Why don't you go over there and tell your parents you just found the Iron Mammal?"

The sheep grinned. "Man, my friends are going to be so jealous!" He turned around, waved goodbye and ran over to the store, vanishing inside.

Nick made a frown. Who was Tony Snark? Who was this Iron Mammal? And what kind of movie do they make out of … what?

He pulled out his phone. _When in doubt, ask Mickiepedia!_

After a bit of typing, he found what he was looking for:

 ** _Iron Mammal (Tony Snark)_** _is a fictional superhero appearing in Zootopian comic books published by Marvelous Comics, as well as its associated media. The character was created by writer and editor Carl Kirby, and developed and designed by scripter and artist Stan Barks. He made his first appearance in The Revengers #3 (January 2019)._

He looked at the pictures associated with the article, and he had to admit, the sheep was right - this character really looked an awful lot like him. It was a red fox, slim and quite muscular, with a smirk on his face. He was wearing a red-and-yellow suit made from some sort of metal of something like that. Only his face was visible.

He started reading the article, but after he found out that he understood next to nothing about it, he re-read the article from the top.

Suddenly, a grin spread on his features.

 _And_ now _I know what to do!_

* * *

 **Yes, of course, I am talking about Iron Man, out of the Marvel Comics universe, created by, among others, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The other name is a nutty bow to "The Good Duck Artist," Carl Barks. All I did was mix the names. The Revengers is another pun at The Avengers, also of Marvel fame.**

 **And the Mickiepedia entry really is the slightly edited first paragraph from the Wikipedia article about Iron Man.**

 **More mayhem will come in the next chapter!**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	17. Chapter Sixteen - Meet the Creator

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **And welcome to part II of my homage series …**

 **These are the current stats: 118 reviews, about 17,100 views, 72 favorites, and 133 alerts. Thanks to all of you for these numbers!**

 **A very special Thank You goes out to all those nice mammals who sent their reviews, namely Jewels1303, PointyHairedJedi, NarutoNineTaleFox, ThePeacer, RavenAndTheWolf, danielshillito, awkwardshark20, Trooper9099, Reader, and I have no idea how many guests.**

 **Oh, and since Trooper9099 mentioned it, I'm going to say it again: Yes, this story is complete, at least in my head, so there's no need for suggestions on how the story should proceed. However, I'm already planning for the time when this story is finally done. If you have good ideas, feel free to tell me. If I like it, and if you agree to it, maybe I will turn the idea into a story. And I'm taking everything, jokes, drabbles, one-liners, full-fledged storylines and what have you. Just so you know, I have three more ideas to pursue right now. One is a direct sequel to this story, another one a collection of one-shots, short drabbles based on songs I like, and the third one is my pet project I desperately want to see realized, but it also is the hardest, and it will probably take me one year to complete it - at least! Despite this, it probably is the idea I am going to pursue first, just because I think it's awesome - at least right now; it's also possible that I start writing, only to find that the idea sucks. Well, let's see what the future has in store for me!**

 **And with that being said, let's plunge into business like nobody's business!**

 **Can't think of a clever line right now, so I'll just say this: No, I don't own Zootopia!**

* * *

Chapter Sixteen

 **Meet the Creator**

 _Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything's okay and everything's going right._

Alanis Morissette: "Ironic" (Written by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard, from the album "Jagged Little Pill," Maverick/Reprise, 1995)

* * *

 _"Now in darkness, world stops turning,_

 _Ashes where the bodies burning._

 _No more war pigs have the power,_

 _Paw of God has struck the hour._

 _Day of judgment, God is calling,_

 _On their knees the war pigs crawling._

 _Begging mercy for their sins,_

 _Satan, laughing, spreads his wings."_

"Oh Lord, yeah!, the small mammal sitting in front of a drawing desk shouted. The loud music didn't bother him at all. In fact, it was just the way Stan Barks wanted it to be.

He smiled as he put the finishing touches on the last panel. Lettering was almost done. It was one of the most important parts of drawing comics, still it was the one part about his job he disliked most. It required a steady hand (which he had) and patience (which he was notoriously short of).

He was slowly reading the text he was lettering while doing so: "Re … ven … gers … As … sem … ble!" He let out a guffaw. "And done!" He put the cap on his Rapidograph and placed the pen gently on the surface of his drawing desk, then he untied the smudge guard from his right paw. Jumping down from his chair, he walked over to the fridge. Knowing he'd done a good job, he thought he deserved a cold beer and a cigarette.

Opening a can of beer and muting the stereo, he jumped onto a barstool in front of a mini-bar, took his phone out of the breast pocket of his shirt and speed-dialed a number. The face of a stag appeared on the tiny screen seconds later. The stag was smiling. "Hey, Stan, long time, no see!"

Stan rolled his eyes while propping up his phone against a bowl full of fruit. "Saw me only yesterday, you big oaf!"

The stag smiled. "I see celebrations start early today. What's with the beer?"

Stan gave him a smile while lighting his cigarette. "Thought you'd like to know that I'm done."

"Already?" The stag was visibly impressed. "Three days ahead of schedule. Not bad!"

"I know. So I thought, open a can." He gave his business partner a silent toast and took a sip.

"Well earned, Stan! Well earned indeed! When will you send it to me?"

"I thought tomorrow. I'll come over and give you the stuff. By the way, I redid the top panel on page 14. You were right. Looks better that way."

"Told you so."

"You did."

"Great! Stan, this is great news! Still interested in the next Spider Mammal issue?"

"You bet your sorry ass. I've time till when?"

"You can tell me tomorrow. No need to rush. We are so ahead of schedule. I guess you want to spend an evening of quality entertainment with Barbara, right?"

Stan chuckled. "Cut the fancy words, Carl. You sound like a doofus!"

Carl laughed out loud. "Could be because I _am_ a doofus." Both had to laugh at that.

"You won' hear me say otherwise," Stan said, grinning. Both said their farewells, and Stan leaned back on his barstool, taking a pull on his cigarette, smiling. _An evening of quality entertainment_ … fancy way of naming the things he wanted to do with his wife. Which involved a lot of physical activity of the stimulating kind.

Stan was laughing. _You spend way too much time with the stag. Next you know, you'll be talkin' jus' like him!_

He de-muted the stereo again, which was now giving him a piece of Black Sable's "Iron Mammal."

 _"Has he lost his mind?_

 _Can he see or is he blind?_

 _Can he walk at all,_

 _Or if he moves will he fall?_

 _Is he alive or dead?_

 _Has he thoughts within his head?_

 _We'll just pass him there,_

 _Why should we even care?"_

The music was so loud, he almost missed the chime of his door bell. Sighing, he muted the stereo again, stubbed out his cigarette and jumped down from his barstool to walk over to the door. Opening it, he looked at a red fox, smiling at him.

"Finnick!" the fox said, spreading his arms as if he wanted to hug him.

Stan's jaw dropped.

* * *

"How'd you find me?"

Nick ignored the question and looked around. "I must say, this drawing gig of yours, it seems to pay the bills."

He was right. The loft apartment would have been spacious for a lion and seemed ridiculously oversized for a fennec fox. It consisted of one large central room which combined the kitchen with a living room and something resembling an office. A few doors led to other rooms. The interior looked both expensive and elegant. Even now, near sunset, the huge windows made sure there was enough light for drawing.

Finnick was not to be deterred. "How'd you find me, cub?"

Nick shrugged while taking a sip out of his can of beer. "Easy. I remembered one of your aliases back then was Stan Barks. So I looked for the name in a telephone book. There were 17 different Stan Barks's. One of them was living in a disused factory building: This didn't make much sense to me, but then I remembered that you always wanted to live in a loft apartment."

Finnick made an impatient gesture. "Yeah, but how'd you come across the name Stan Barks?"

"I met some kid on the street who said I look just like The Iron Mammal."

"Did he, now?" Finnick shook his head.

"Yeah. I had no idea what he meant, so I looked it up on Mickeypedia. And then I remembered. You always liked to draw, didn't you? You were the king of graffiti. I learned that there is a comic book hero who happens to look like your partner. Drawn by some guy who happens to bear a name you used as an alias years ago."

"Partner?" Finnick asked.

Nick made a frown. "Beg your pardon?"

Finnick snorted. "You call me your partner? Funny, always thought you needed to answer calls comin' from your partner."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Finnick put down his beer and glared at Nick. "You know fuckin' well what that means! Two years! I tried to call you for _two years!_ "

Nick paused, then he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. "I see."

"You see what?"

Without opening his eyes, Nick said: "I know you won't believe me, but they say I'm suffering from amnesia."

That gave Finnick pause. "Amnesia?"

"Yes."

"As in, you don' remember?"

"Yes."

Finnick paused for a moment. "But you remember me."

"I do."

"What do you remember?"

Nick opened his eyes again. "That I had a partner who took me in when I was a kid, who taught me all I needed to know to survive on the streets. A guy who helped me scam a lot of mammals." He sighed, looking around again. "But it seems that this partner has moved on."

Finnick let out a guffaw. "He has. He moved on, jus' as his partner told him to."

Nick raised an eyebrow. " _I_ told you?"

"Yep."

"When? And why?"

Finnick stared at him for almost a minute. "You really don' remember?"

"No. What should I remember?"

"You don' remember bein' with the fuzz?"

Nick made a face. "Everybody tells me I was a cop. I don't believe it."

"You better do. You was a cop, Nick."

"How could I have become a cop?"

"Because there was this bunny. She hustled you into helping her, you did an' sort of liked it, and she told you to join the cops. You did, an' Bob's your uncle!"

Nick heaved a huge sigh. "I have no idea how this could have happened."

Finnick gave him a smirk. "Because you had it bad for tha' bunny."

Nick bristled. "That's ridiculous, Fin, and you know it!"

"Suit yourself. But I know what a guy looks like when he got the hots."

"I did _not_ have the hots for a bunny!"

Finnick shook his head. "Wow, you really don' remember."

Nick gave him a somewhat tired look. "Listen, Finnick, I don't care what everybody says. I know what I am and what I'm not. I'm no cop. Never was, never will be."

Instead of answering, Finnick got up from his chair and walked over to a small shelf. There were several folders, one of which Finnick took. Opening it, he returned to Nick to present it to him. "Not a cop, eh?"

Nick took the folder. It contained sheet protectors which in turn contained small newspaper clippings. In the third protector, Nick came across an article which read:

 **ZPD Officers Arrest Drug Lord**

The article explained that a team of ZPD law enforcement officers, led by Detectives Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde, managed to arrest an infamous drug dealer and most of his henchmen after months of extensive investigative work. There even was a photo of the arrest, showing a musk ox being led away by two huge police officers, a rhino and an elephant. Towards the front, a rabbit wearing a police uniform watched the proceedings, looking tiny compared to the other mammals in the picture. The article gave some details, and it also mentioned that Detective Wilde was wounded by a gunshot during the arrest, but would probably make a speedy recovery.

"Wounded?" Nick asked.

Finnick shrugged. "A bullet to the shoulder. There's another article mentioning it, somewhere in there."

Nick raised his right paw automatically, placing it on his left shoulder. Finding nothing amiss, he switched paws. And sure enough, he came across a scar he did not remember, right below the collar bone. It was tiny, just big enough for a small projectile.

Finnick watched him doing this. "It was you alright. Damn little hero!"

Nick looked back down at the folder. "I don't remember any of this."

"Don' mean it ain't true."

Nick examined more newspaper clippings. "You collected all of these?"

"Sure. Even if you don't return calls, you still are my cub."

Nick snorted. "Yeah, right." He closed the folder and returned it to Finnick, who put it back onto the shelf.

"Course I collect articles 'bout you. I mean, I would never've wanted to be a cop, but you wanted it, an' it made you happy. Who'm I to complain?" Finnick returned to his chair. "I liked you, Nick. You trusted me. We was a good team. Losin' you to the fuzz was bad, but I managed."

Nick looked around. "But you're not hustling anymore, obviously. What happened?"

Finnick shot him a dark look. "You happened."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I went into a solo hustle that went sour. Like, real sour. Cops all around me, and you was one of them. You help'd me escape, but you told me t'was the las' time. Nex' time, you would arrest me."

Finnick emptied his can. "Got me thinkin'. Thought I'd overstay'd my welcome, so I tried to disappear. Tundratown, Happytown, anywhere. But cash wasn't growin' on trees, so I had to look elsewhere."

He snapped his digits. "And then I had 'n idea. You remember Dimitri?"

Nick had to ponder on this for a bit, but then he nodded. "You mean the wolf running this garage where you could make your car disappear?"

"Right, that's the one. Drive o'er with your hot car, give it a new splash o' paint, new rims an' new bumpers, and cops are stumped. I remembered he always looked for painters, so I asked him. He said yeah, so I started paintin' for him. Not exactly legal, but better than hustlin'."

"But not anymore. Why?"

"One day we had a customer, a stag. Asked who owned the van out there. My van."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Your old piece of junk?"

"Watch it, cub! One of my bat's still within reach." He pointed at a near corner, where several baseball bats had been placed in some sort of umbrella stand. "That piece of junk's the reason why I'm here. He saw it an' liked the artwork."

"The artwork? You mean the picture of this armed fox carrying a vixen?"

"That one, yeah. Told me his name's Carl Kirby. Said he was a writer. I asked: 'Writer, as in books?' He said: 'As in comic books.' I thought he was nuts, but then he showed me some comics. And what I saw, I liked.

"Told me he'd lost his partner an' was lookin' for a new one. Asked me if I wanted in. I said: 'Yeah, why not?' He had this idea for a bunch of superheroes, called 'The Revengers.' A lion demigod, a tiger super-soldier, an antelope assassin, a weasel scientist who turns into a super-strong rhino when he's angry, an ocelot sharpshooter, and a lot of other oddballs. Sounded super crazy. He wanted me to draw it, I did. End of story."

Nick looked around again, taking in the expensive furniture. "Seems to pay the bills well enough."

"That it does."

"And where does this Iron Mammal come in?"

Finnick gave him a grin that looked almost salacious. "Yeah, the Iron Mammal." He got up again and got another folder from the shelf. "Wanna see him?"

"Yes, I'd like to."

Finnick brought him the folder, opening it in the process. "Here you are."

Nick examined the cover of a comic book. The red fox depicted on it was indeed the spitting image of Nick. "Let me guess, you modeled him on me."

"Smart cub. Yeah, this is basic'lly you. Carl, he wanted the Iron Mammal to be a wolf. Told him I liked a fox better. I got my wish."

Nick grinned. "I really look like this?"

"No. This is based on you, but the Iron Mammal looks better."

"Thanks for nothing!"

Finnick gave him a smirk. "Course he looks better, I drew him." He chuckled.

Nick examined the cover further, then his eyes widened. In one corner of the cover, he saw another mammal, a female. She was small, probably smaller than the fox, her fur was gray and her eyes a stunning purple. He flinched. "A bunny?"

"Yeah, that's Virginia 'Hopper' Hotts. She's his secretary. An' before you ask, yeah, I modeled her after your cop friend."

Nick looked at the depiction of a bunny with conflicting emotions. The bunny on the cover was looking at the fox with what can only be described as infatuation. _She has it bad for the fox!_

"Why?"

Finnick shrugged. "Just thought the idea was good. After the Nighthowler thingy, I thought …"

"What Nighthowler thingy?"

Finnick paused. "You don' even remember _that_?"

"No."

Finnick shook his head. "Mammal, where've you been?"

"In hospital. With a broken skull and amnesia."

Finnick gave his low chuckle. "You've never been one for half measures, eh?"

Nick shrugged. "So, what about this Nighthowler thingy?"

"Well, there was this sheep, Bellwether. She was assistant mayor and a huge pain in the ass. Had found some plant that could make mammals go savage. She targeted preds, made them go bonkers, and tried to use this to let prey rule over preds. You an' Judy stopped her. Don't remember how, exactly, but you did."

Suddenly, Nick's thoughts returned to the lamb who had made the connection between him and the Iron Mammal. Maybe this was the reason why he had felt uneasy about the child. A sheep. A sheep had targeted predators. Sounded crazy, but over the course of the last few days, Nick had heard enough crazy to last a lifetime.

What if they were all right?

What if he really was a cop?

What if this bunny really was his partner?

Or even his friend?

Finnick had called her his friend.

 _WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER?_

"You said this bunny's my friend?"

"She is. Your best buddy. An' maybe somethin' more."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. I told you."

"You really mean I … have it bad for her?"

"You have, cub."

Nick shook his head. "This is crazy!"

"It is. But better than prey hating preds. That's why I made Iron Mammal a fox an' his secretary a bunny. They are just as good a team as you an' Judy are."

Nick made a face. "I really don't remember."

"I thought you were with her."

"No, I actually stole away when she was trying to show me her workplace. _Our_ workplace, if she's to be believed."

Finnick's eyes widened. "You stole away?"

"Yep."

Finnick got up again and walked over to the umbrella stand. "I should really clobber you o'er the head with one o' these! This bunny had been your best buddy for 'bout _four years_! An' you jus' steal away?" He shook his head. "That's not you, Nick. You never stole away. You always helped. You helped me turn away from hustlin', you helped Judy solve crimes. You helped all an' sundry! You never turned your back on friends." He grabbed one of the bats and raised it over his head. "WHAT THE FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU, NICK?"

Nick just shrugged. The prospect of being hit with a baseball bat didn't seem to bother him all that much. "Is that why you wanted to call me? To thank me?"

Finnick lowered the bat again. "Yeah. My life's much better now than it's ever been. Thanks for showin' me a way out!"

Nick made a pause. "I would like to say 'You're welcome,' but that doesn't seem right, seeing that I don't remember."

"Well, then try 'n get your memories back! Go back to Judy. She'll help you!"

"You think so?"

"I _know_! She has it bad for you, too! She'll do anything to help you."

It was as if his old partner's words had jolted something in him. Suddenly, Nick felt very ashamed.

Judy had tried to help him regain his memories.

And he had shunned her.

 _Way to go, Nick!_

Nick emptied his can of beer and got up. "Right. I guess it's time for me to go back and apologize to her."

"You do that, cub. An' tell her hi from me, too."

"Will do.

"An' Nick?"

"Yes?"

"Jus' so you know, Finnick died two years ago. I'm Stan Barks."

Nick smiled. "It's your real name anyway, right?"

Finnick/Stan nodded. "It is."

Nick offered his paw. "Good, Stan. Nice to meet you."

Stan returned the pawshake with a smile. "Don' be a stranger, Nick."

"I won't. Have to look after my son, after all."

Stan raised the bat again. "GET OUT!"

* * *

 **Man, that was more difficult than I thought, but what fun it's been!**

 **Again we meet the Iron Man/Tony Stark character from Marvel Comics, created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby. I also threw a bit of Marvel's "The Avengers" into the mix, for good measure. Not to forget Virginia "Pepper" Potts, Tony Stark's secretary and on/off lover.**

 **And, of course, I took the liberty of mentioning two great pieces of heavy metal: First, we have "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward), Warner Bros., 1970. And then we have what is probably my favorite heavy metal song of all times: "War Pigs," also by Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward), Warner Bros., 1970. Both appeared on the awesome, ground-breaking album "Paranoid." If you haven't heard it yet, buy it, listen to it, worship it! This is quintessential heavy metal at its finest! (The name "Black Sable" actually is from the movie itself; you can briefly see it when Judy's on her train ride to Zootopia, scrolling through the songs list on her iPawd.)**

 **I received a lot of suggestions lately concerning the way Nick's memories could possibly return. The comment I read most often was that Finnick should have the privilege of doing it - with the help of his trusty baseball bat. As far as jokes are concerned, it's a marvelous idea, but it won't work in the real world. It's a myth that another trauma to the brain could jog somebody's memory. In most cases, the damage is only worsened. So no, I have different things in store for our favorite red fox.**

 **Now, why is Finnick a comic artist?**

 **The reason is simple. I was living in a flat-sharing community once, and one of my room-mates was a graphic artist. In her oeuvre were illustrations for books and magazines, several pictures, some bigger paintings, and … (drum roll, please!) comics. Through her, I got to know quite a lot of comic artists.**

 **This was years ago, and I had all but forgotten about this, until I saw Finnick's van in Zootopia. My first thought was: "Hey, this artwork looks familiar!" I know it was designed by Cory Loftis, one of the character designers at Disney, but it could just as easily have come from a friend of my room-mate.**

 **Now, in the movie, who was responsible for the artwork? Probably Finnick himself. He operates on the very fringes of legality, so it's unlikely he goes to an authorized repair shop - just look at the door on the driver's side. It's safe to assume that he does quite a lot of the necessary repairs himself. If so, why not the artwork, too? I tend to think he is capable of this. And the name "Barks" really fits a canine, does it not?**

 **Add to this watching the movie "Iron Man" with a few friends, and the connection is easy. I just love the idea of Tony Stark being a fox and Pepper Potts being a bunny. Reminds you of another couple?**

 **Yeah, sometimes my mind goes strange ways - true to the motto: "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most."**

 **And by the way, the makers of Zootopia have indeed hinted that Finnick's not his real name. Why not Stan Barks?**

 **Thanks for reading this! Please review!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	18. Chapter Seventeen - Dealing With It

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **This is the third part of my small homage series. And yes, we are still talking about Iron Man by Marvel Comics and everything connected to it, so I don't think I need to mention more in these author's notes.**

 **Right now, the stats look like this: 128 reviews, almost 20,000 views, 86 favorites, and 146 alerts. Still sitting on this rollercoaster, holding on for dear life. I cannot thank you enough!**

 **And, of course, I also want to thank these dedicated mammals for enlightening my life with their reviews: RavenAndTheWolf, hpalex13, SingingAngel327, dragonulera, Bukoya, LucarioJV, PointyHairedJedi, averagefangirlnot, NarutoNineTailFox, njlopez, and Chaos-Wolfy.**

 **Well, let's get into the thick of things, shall we?**

 **Man, I so wish Zootopia was mine, all mine!**

* * *

Chapter Seventeen

 **Dealing With It**

 _Got another empty bottle and another empty bed. Ain't too young to admit it, and I'm not too old to lie. I'm just another empty head._

AC/DC: "Ride On" (Written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott, from the album "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," Albert, 1976)

* * *

Judy put her phone down with a sigh. Talking to her parents was rarely fun, and sometimes outright embarrassing. This time, however, it had been absolutely humiliating. Telling her parents that it was her fault that Nick was no longer a part of her life had hurt badly, but the looks of concern on both her parents' faces had worsened the pain hundredfold. She felt like the most useless, most dumb bunny imaginable. And now they had invited her to stay at Bunnyburrow over the weekend. She did so _not_ look forward to this, but they had been right: Judy's very soul was in turmoil, and the only thing that could help her out of it was a bit of peace and quiet.

Then again, there are always more ways to skin a lion.

"I'm gonna get _sloshed_ tonight," Judy announced to no one in particular.

Surprisingly enough, there was no response from her pesky neighbors. Of course not. Bucky and Pronk had departed for their accustomed round of nightly entertainment. If they stuck to their routine - and they usually did -, they would be gone until three in the morning, completely plastered, waking the whole neighborhood with their singing and bickering, complaining loudly when Judy's alarm clock disrupted their comatose slumber at 5:30 in the morning.

Judy got up from her bed and walked over to her "kitchen," consisting of a cupboard, a mini-fridge and a microwave oven. Opening the fridge, she grabbed a bottle of apple cider and went back to her bed. She had bought the bottle a few months ago on a whim, intending to crack it open during one of the regular movie nights with Nick. Now, with him gone, it didn't seem to matter anymore. Dispensing with glasses, she sat down on the bed, opened the bottle and took a huge swig.

Ten minutes into her attempt at binge drinking, she found out to her dismay that the reason for her drinking remained in her head just as stubbornly as before. Forgetting Nick, the image of him leaving their office to vanish without a trace, was impossible. To the contrary, being inebriated only seemed to intensify her feelings of loss.

"I'm so stupid!" she whispered. "Such a fuckin' idiot! Such a dumb, dumb bunny!"

Judy Hopps was in absolutely misery.

And she had the feeling this would never end.

* * *

Nick was standing in front of an ice cream parlor, now closed for the night. Something about this spot struck him as oddly familiar.

This was a most likely spot for him and Finnick to buy a jumbo pop. Just to turn it into a heap of pawpsicles they could then sell to gullible customers.

Maybe they had gone here to do it. He didn't know. But elephant-sized pops sure made for a lot of pawpsicles.

He still didn't remember, and the longer he thought about his loss of memories, the more it bothered him.

Probably because everything he had heard over the course of the last couple of days pointed to the possibility that the Nick Wilde buried under his amnesia was the complete opposite of the Nick Wilde he thought he was.

He just didn't know what to believe anymore.

Was he really that cop Finnick had told him he was?

He knew just one thing: Trying to get his memories back by sticking all by his lonesome wasn't working at all. Even finding his former hustling buddy hadn't helped him lift the fog. He needed better help.

Help from a bunny?

Without even thinking about it, he took his phone out of the pocket of his slacks. Looking for a certain contact, he dialed the number, waiting for a reply.

* * *

Judy's phone, sitting in its charging cradle on her window sill, gave its tiny doodle, indicating an incoming call. Judy lunged for it merely out of instinct, but decided against answering. It was probably just Clawhauser, wanting to hear how she was, how things were. He had been in agony over the fact that he had let Nick escape a few hours ago, and it had taken her all the years of experience with his empathic soul to calm him down. Dealing with him now would be more than she could handle.

After all, it hadn't been his fault.

It had been hers, and hers alone.

* * *

The call was not answered, and no mailbox was activated.

Nick sighed, shut down his phone and put it back into his pocket. Judy was probably furious with him. And he couldn't blame her. She had tried to help him, and he had shot her down.

Maybe Finnick should really have clobbered him with his bat. He had the feeling he deserved it.

Slowly he trudged along the street. This had been his old hunting grounds. The streets and places looked familiar to him, and yet something struck him as different.

 _It's me. I'm different._

 _Just how different am I?_

He came across a kiosk, one of those "open 24 hours" shops found all over Zootopia. On a whim he didn't really understand, he entered the sales room. A yak was standing behind the counter, deeply engrossed in some newspaper. He seemed to be completely unaware of the fact that a customer had just entered the small shop.

 _Buddy, you are just asking to be robbed._

Now where had this thought come from?

He shook his head to clear it, then he looked around. Why had he entered the building? What was he looking for?

His gaze fell upon the periodical rack. Before he knew it, he was perusing the choice of products.

Less than one minute later, he approached the counter, placed his item of choice on top of it and cleared his throat. The Yak looked up from his newspaper.

And stared at him, eyes widening.

"That you, Officer Wilde?"

Nick frowned. "Do I know you?"

The yak nodded enthusiastically. "You an' that partner o' you's caught some robbers tryin' ta get away with me money."

 _Why am I not surprised?_

Realizing that the yak was waiting for an answer, Nick nodded. "Maybe. I don't remember every criminal I caught."

 _A jackal. An ugly one, with a huge scar across his muzzle. Dressed all in black, wearing combat boots and a gun which later turned out to be a toy gun._

The image had appeared in his head with sudden clarity.

 _A jackal had tried to rob this store in broad daylight. Judy and I responded to the distress call and chased the jackal on foot. She ran after the thug, while I used a shortcut to get in front of him. Cornered, he attacked her, perceiving her as the lesser evil. Not counting on the fact that a bunny capable of downing a rhino had no difficulties doing the same thing to a jackal. Another arrest. Another tally on our record._

Only his long experience as a hustler prevented Nick from showing any signs of surprise.

 _I remember!_

 _I remember … what?_

No more memories were forthcoming.

 _Damn! So close, and yet so far!_

But this was improvement. Good, solid improvement.

He had seen himself as a cop.

Seems like everyone else was right.

The feeling of urgency intensified. _I need to see Judy!_

He managed a grin which probably looked fake. "It was a jackal, right?"

The yak seemed to be absolutely delighted. "It was!"

Nick nodded. "Well, then I do remember." He points at his item of choice. "How much is that?"

The yak looked down at the counter. "Oh, the lates' Iron Mammal issue. Fer your son?"

Nick shook his head, lying easily. "My nephew. He's totally into it."

"Ya know, ya look jus' like him."

Nick couldn't help grinning, a genuine grin this time. _Boy, if you only knew!_ "I get that all the time."

"Oh, an' it's free fer you, Officer."

"Nonsense." Nick pulled his wallet out of his pocket.

"T'is! You's not payin' in here!"

Nick slapped a fiver on the counter. "Keep the change. And remember, stay vigilant! Robbers love places like these." He had no idea what made him say this, but it just felt … right.

 _I am a cop, after all._

* * *

Thinking that music might distract her from her morbid feelings, Judy had grabbed her iPawd, idly browsing through the extensive list of songs available. She came across a particular one which made her eyes go wide. Not a particular favorite of hers - why was it even on her iPawd? On a whim, she pressed Play.

 _"I've been defeated and brought down_

 _Dropped to my knees when hope ran out_

 _The time has come to change my ways"_

This had been one of Nick's favorite songs. He had always said it was the story of his life told in four minutes and nineteen seconds of sheer heavy metal goodness.

 _"On this day I see clearly_

 _Everything has come to life_

 _A bitter place and a broken dream_

 _And we'll leave it all, leave it all behind"_

Maybe it was time to change the ways. Maybe it was time to move on. Maybe …

 _Who am I kidding?_

 _This is Nick's song! He changed his ways._

 _And now he changed them again._

 _"I'll never long for what might have been_

 _Regret won't waste my life again_

 _I won't look back_

 _I'll fight to remain"_

But she had to move on, too.

Wallowing in self-hate and despair wasn't going to help her.

 _"On this day I see clearly_

 _Everything has come to life_

 _A bitter place and a broken dream_

 _And we'll leave it all behind_

 _On this day it's so real to me_

 _Everything has come to life_

 _Another chance to chase a dream_

 _Another chance to feel_

 _Chance to feel alive"_

Yes, she was still alive. She was still chasing her dream.

The dream of being a police officer.

Unfortunately, the dream had changed over the years.

She wanted to be a police officer alongside Nick.

 _"Fear will kill me_

 _All I could be_

 _Lift these sorrows_

 _Let me breathe_

 _Could you set me free_

 _Could you set me free"_

Could he?

No.

He was gone.

A fresh sob shook her body.

* * *

Sitting down on a park bench near Central Park, Nick was idly thumbing through the comic book he had just bought. When he had seen its cover for the first time, he had been fairly certain that it might be very silly. And it was - it was so silly in fact, it was really amusing.

His "alter ego," Tony Snark, was a billionaire, a playboy, a mechanical genius, an entrepreneur, owner of the largest weapons manufacturing company in the world, in short, a true badass. During the first part of the story, he was the embodiment of everything other mammals thought of foxes - sly, resourceful, and not a guy you'd invite to your dinner party without keeping a close eye on your silverware. Ruthless, opportunistic, untrustworthy - those words described Tony Snark to a T. But then, after being captured and held hostage by a bunch of baddies, he saw the error of his ways. Constructing a metal suit carrying heavy weaponry, he then proceeded to fight the baddies.

 _Great! Fighting violence through use of violence. I really love the message behind this!_

But the most interesting thing wasn't the suit, although it looked really interesting (and highly improbably, given the state of today's technology). It wasn't the message of fighting for the good cause, by any means necessary.

No, it was the relationship between Tony and his secretary, Hopper Hotts.

When she first appeared in the comic, he had just returned home after being able to free himself from captivity. She was standing near the runway where the plane carrying him had stopped, a look of affection etched on her face.

 _She deeply cares for him._

It wasn't that there was any kind of development in their relationship over the course of the action within the comic book. But their looks, their words, the emotion when they looked at each other …

"I don't have anyone but you," Tony said to Hopper at one point.

 _I don't have anyone but her._

* * *

The bottle of cider was almost empty, yet Judy didn't feel plastered. To the contrary, she felt more sober than she had felt in weeks.

More sober and more desperate.

Her plan had backfired, big time. She was still shaken, still an emotional wreck. Nothing she had done had helped her come to terms with what had happened.

She desperately wanted to see him again, yet she was certain that at the very least, it would take years for her to see him again.

He had been so opposed to the very idea of being a police officer. It would take a huge effort to bring him back to where he had been before his accident.

An effort he was denying her by being absent.

And to top it all off, she would probably regret her actions of today when she would wake up tomorrow. Being hung-over wasn't her favorite pastime.

More tears ran down her face.

 _You are such an idiot, Judith Hopps!_

* * *

Walking the streets of Zootopia again, the comic book rolled-up in his paw, Nick entered a neighborhood that didn't look familiar at all. Yes, he knew Zootopia like the back of his paw, but there were districts he knew really well, yet others he had steered clear of.

This part of City Central didn't exactly ring a bell.

And yet it did.

The feeling became increasingly disconcerting. It was as if a see-through layer of knowledge was put over what he looked at. Knowledge he knew he had, but was unable to put his digit on.

The most disconcerting feeling was that he was very close to regaining his memory.

Yet it still remained elusive.

He stopped in front of an apartment building. Looking up, he examined the façade, counting the floors. Again, the building looked strangely familiar, yet he was certain he had never been here before.

 _A mad dash, leaving a cab._

 _A long set of stairs._

 _A door on the top floor._

 _And behind that door …_

Suddenly, he found himself standing inside that building, in front of a rather nondescript door. He had no idea how he had gotten there.

Had he retraced the steps from his incomplete memories? Obviously.

 _I've been here before!_

He gave the door a tentative knock.

Groaning. A voice. "Yeah? What is it?"

His eyes widened.

 _Judy!_

"It's me," he said.

Silence. Then, suddenly, the door was yanked open.

And there was the bunny he had left behind. Eyes bloodshot. Swaying slightly. Looking at him in complete and utter shock.

"Hi, Carrots."

* * *

 **Oooooh, it's getting warmer!**

 **Yet another great song in this chapter, another favorite of mine: "Metalingus" by Alter Bridge (Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, Wind-up records, 2004). It really is sort of the story of my life, encapsulated in pure heavy metal greatness. And yeah, some of you may remember this as the entrance tune of the professional wrestler Edge aka Adam Copeland - this was how I got to know the song, too. But I prefer the album version - the intro alone is terrific! (And before you ask me, yes, there was a time I was following professional wrestling quite closely, but the day CM Punk left WWE for good, I stopped caring.)**

 **And the story in the comic book I allude to basically is a shortened version of the plot of the first "Iron Man" movie (Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures, 2008)**

 **So, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, and keep those reviews coming!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	19. Chapter Eighteen - Together Again

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **The upcoming chapter is a direct continuation of the previous one, meaning not one second has passed. I could have made one chapter out of this and the previous one, but I decided against it, as I felt a caesura was in order.**

 **And before you ask, this chapter almost drove me nuts. So many writes and re-writes - it was so tough typing the words I had in my head down. I knew what I wanted to say, but I had, for the most part, no idea how to say the proper words. This chapter just demanded a huge amount of tweaking and twiddling. This is why it took me so long to complete it.**

 **In this chapter, we'll get yet another glimpse at my version of Iron Man - the comic book I was referring to in the last chapter makes another appearance here. For the last time, by the way.**

 **Quick stats update: This story received 148 reviews, was viewed more than 24,000 times, 100 dedicated mammals declared it as a favorite, and 171 dedicated mammals receive alerts. Thanks to all of you who made this insanity possible!**

 **And, of course, a very special Thank You to my faithful reviewers, Chaos-Wolfy, LucarioJV, NarutoNineTaleFox, RavenAndTheWolf, Trooper9099, dariusjio, hpalex13, PointyHairedJedi, danielshillito, tyrekem576, and ejmoya11. Your words of encouragement mean a lot to me. I bow to you all in gratitude!**

 **And, of course, the running commentary by Rhodanos was a lot of fun to read! Keep the reviews coming! And thank you for your constant praise - I still don't think I deserve it.**

 **Well, ready, set, GO!**

 **Yeah, I'm having daydreams of owning Zootopia. Is that a crime?**

* * *

Chapter Eighteen

 **Together Again**

 _When you see familiar faces, but you don't remember where they're from, could you be wrong? When you've been particular places that you know you've never seen before, can you be sure?_

Iron Maiden: "Deja-Vu" (Written by Steve Harris and Dave Murray, from the album "Somewhere in Time," EMI/Capitol, 1986)

* * *

Any snarky comment Nick might have thought of vanished upon seeing Judy.

Judy looked … _appalling!_

Her eyes were bloodshot, the enormous bags under her eyes were wet with tears, and her ears were droopy. She was holding on to the door as if her life depended on it, swaying on the spot, and her whole posture screamed misery in the loudest volume imaginable.

For a fleeting second. Then, suddenly, the sun rose.

Judy started to smile.

"I hope I'm not … _oomph!_ "

With no prior warning, Judy jumped through the door into Nick, colliding with him, forcing the air out of his lungs, throwing her arms around him. She buried her face in his chest, and Nick found out to his dismay that fresh tears wetted his beloved shirt.

"Nick," Judy sobbed. "You came back!"

She hugged him tightly, making breathing difficult.

"Yes. I hope I'm not disturbing."

"Not at all." Judy sniffled. "You came back! Where have you been?"

Nick shrugged, which was difficult, seeing as she had pinned his arms to his side. "Here and there." He made a pause. "Could you please let go off me? I'm starting to suffocate here!"

She let go off him immediately. "Oh, sorry." She took a step back again and looked at him.

Still appalling, but at least she was smiling.

And then the smile was gone.

* * *

Hugging Nick, that was old hat. They had hugged each other often. As a matter of fact, it was their usual way of greeting each other or saying farewell. Just a quick hug, a hug grounded in simple friendship, nothing more.

This one had felt … different.

She had hugged him, and Nick had not returned the hug.

She examined him closely. Yes, there was his usual smirk, his posture was relaxed, but he showed none of the warmth that usually signified their relationship.

 _No, that's not the Nick I remember. He still hasn't his memories back._

Then again, he had found her. And she had not given him her address.

"How did you find me?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, actually. I walked past this building, and suddenly I was in here, standing in front of this door." He pointed at it. "No idea why."

She nodded. "Because you remember. You've been here countless times." She held her breath. Something very similar, just a statement of facts, had led to his departure just a few hours earlier.

To her relief, he merely shrugged. "If you say so." He looked around. "Although I must say, nothing looks familiar. There's nothing here that I remember." He looked at Judy again. "Unlike other things."

"Those being?"

"Well, I went into a shop to buy this." He held up a rolled-up magazine with his left paw. "The shop owner, a yak, identified me immediately. He said we caught a jackal who had been stealing from his shop. You took him out with a few roundhouse kicks."

Judy wanted to reply to that, but hesitated. The old Nick had an almost eidetic memory for mammals. He rarely forgot an arrest, and he had a vast knowledge of names and faces unrivaled at the ZPD. Unlike her. She didn't remember this particular arrest. Did he?

He obviously hadn't expected a comment from her. "I was merely along for the ride."

Her eyes widened. "You … remember?"

He nodded. "I remember this arrest. I saw myself wearing the uniform of a police officer. I remember chasing that jackal, taking a shortcut and blocking his way. He had no way out, attacked you, you took him down. All this, I remember."

He made a pause. "I still don't know about most of the stuff you tried to tell me. I don't remember working at the ZPD. I don't remember my colleagues. I don't remember working with you. But since I saw myself in uniform, solving one case with you, I am, for the moment, willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." He took a deep breath. "Judy, I'm sorry for leaving you today. You were just trying to help me, and I questioned everything you did. That was … that was uncalled-for, and I'm sorry."

Judy nodded. "It's okay. I came down a bit strong, and I understand that I put you under a lot of pressure. I'm sorry, too. We're good?"

He nodded. "We are."

Judy let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. It was only then that she realized that they were still standing on her doorstep. She stepped aside and motioned him to enter her room, which he did. Closing the door, she turned around, albeit a bit too quickly, for the room spun around her for a few seconds, then settled again. Nick, in the meantime, had approached the window, turned around and leaned against the window sill. Looking down at the almost empty bottle of cider standing on her bedside cabinet, he asked, matter-of-factly: "Did you polish this off all on your own?"

She shrugged. "Maybe I did. Sue me!"

"Sorry to decline." He gave her a smirk again. "Explains a lot however."

"Like what?"

"Your looks, for one. Your getup."

She looked down at herself immediately, and to her astonishment she saw that all she was wearing was a black sports bra and a matching slip. She couldn't for the life of her remember when she had taken off her blouse and her pair of jeans. Thinking about it, she found out that she didn't care. Nick had seen her in her underwear numerous times; just like hugs, this was old hat and not worthy of thought. He had seen her in a skimpy bikini, for crying out loud! She looked up again, raising an eyebrow. "What about my looks?"

"Well, if I was into rabbits, I'd say you look really sexy."

 _If I was into rabbits …_

Had she been sober, his words would probably have hurt her, but given her inebriation, she found to her own amusement that she started swaying her hips for his benefit. "Why, thank you! You sure you're not into rabbits?"

He hesitated visibly.

Judy stopped in mid-swing, eyeing him curiously.

"Well," he said slowly, "there is one guy who thinks I am."

"Uh huh."

 _Wait, what?_

Instead of explaining, he held up the magazine again. She looked closer and found out that it was a comic book. She gave a grin. "Aren't you a little old to still be reading comics?"

He shrugged. "Just so you know, I have never read comics. This is the first one I bought in my whole life. At least," he scratched his head, "I think it is."

"So, why did you buy it?"

He held it up for her to take. "Here, see for yourself."

She took the comic book, looking at the cover.

And gasped.

She was looking at the spitting image of Nick Wilde.

Looking up again, she saw that Nick was smiling. Not smirking, not grimacing, just smiling. And it looked … good! "Did you notice the small figure in the lower right corner?"

She looked at the cover again, searching for the character he mentioned.

And gasped again.

There, wearing an expensive-looking sundress, was a rabbit with gray fur and purple eyes.

It was like looking in a mirror which delivered a much smaller reflection of the real thing.

"How …," she began, only to find out that she had no idea what she wanted to say.

"I happen to know the guy who drew this," Nick said simply.

"Really?"

Nick nodded. "And you know him, too."

"Who is it?" She looked at the names given on the cover. "Kirby and Barks. Who are these guys?"

"Well, Kirby is a stag, if I recall correctly. He writes the stories. Stan Barks is the graphic artist who draws the comic books. And he is also the one who developed the main characters."

"Stan Barks? I don't think I've heard that name before."

"I have. It's the real name of a small fennec fox I think you only know by his alias."

Judy frowned. "Finnick?"

"None other."

"Finnick draws comics?"

"He does. Back in the days, he always had a few cans of spray paint lying around. There was a time when almost half of the graffitis you get to see in Zootopia were sprayed by him. He simply graduated to drawing comics. I'm not an expert on the subject, but as far as I can tell, he's really good."

She smiled. "So that's where you've been off to."

"It was. Thought I could talk to him about my past, maybe get him to help me jog my memories …"

"Maybe get into some hustling." The quip was out of her mouth before she got to think about it. _Damn it, Judy, he'll turn his back on you again!_

Surprisingly, Nick merely stared at her, then he nodded slowly. "Yes, maybe even that. Turns out, he has turned his back on hustling some two years ago. He worked at a paint shop, and then this stag, Kirby, turned up at his workplace, admiring the artwork on his van and asked him if he wanted to become a graphic artist." Nick pointed at the comic book. "And is his current lodgings are any indication, he's doing pretty well."

Judy looked at the comic again. "Using us as template for his heroes."

"Well, he said after this thing with … Bellwether, the world could use …"

"Wait, you remember Bellwether?"

"No. He just mentioned the name."

Judy nodded sadly. There was still so much work to do before he would have his full memory back.

"Yeah, Bellwether. She was assistant mayor when I entered the ZPD, and I thought she was my best friend. Sadly, however, she turned out to be a dangerous lunatic. A friend of hers had managed to extract a poison from a plant called _Midnicampum holicithias_ , also known as Nighthowlers. Everyone poisoned with this turns savage. She used it on predators to make prey rule over them. We managed to hustle her into revealing her plot. It actually was our first case together."

"It was?"

"Indeed."

"Sounds interesting. How could she profit from predators going savage?"

"Well, she is a sheep, so maybe she was a bit afraid of predators. But in the end, all she was after was power. She framed the Mayor for crimes he had basically never committed, and she wanted to remove predators from all the important positions in Zootopia. Complete rule of prey over predators. We heard her admit to it, and were able to use this as evidence against her. The outcry was enormous. She's currently serving time in prison, and she will be for a long, long time."

"You said we hustled her?"

Judy nodded. "Yes. She wanted to target you with the poison, but we had swapped the serum with blueberries from my family's farm. You pretended to go savage while I goaded her into admitting to her crimes, recording it all with my trusty pen."

"Your pen?"

"Yes, my carrot pen. You know it?"

He shook his head.

Judy looked around, not finding it. "Hang on a minute." She walked over to her rucksack, fumbling around in it before pulling out her trusty carrot pen. "This here is both a pen and a Dictaphone. I can record …"

She broke off when her gaze fell onto Nick. He was eyeing the pen with a most peculiar facial expression.

* * *

 **It actually is around 2 am where I live right now, and seeing that I need to get up around 6 am, it's high time for me to go to bed. (Without these frequent night shifts, this story would probably never have seen the light of day.) So that's enough for the moment. More to come soon. (I hope!)**

 **Thank you for reading and reviewing!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	20. Chapter Nineteen - The Pen is Mightier

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **Today, you'll find the author's notes at the end of the story. So let's get crackin'!**

 **So, birdygirl, you wanna fight me over possession of Zootopia? Fine with me. Make sure to bring your heaviest gloves! Won't make a difference though. After all, Disney will probably not like us fighting over something which is basically theirs! ;-)**

* * *

Chapter Nineteen

 **The Pen is Mightier …**

 _Sometime I'll leave the past behind me. For now I accept who I've become._

Five Finger Death Punch: "I Apologize" (Written by Zoltan Bathory, Kevin Churko, Ivan L. Moody, Jason Hook, and Jeremy Spencer, from the album "Got Your Six - Deluxe Edition," Prospect Park, 2015)

* * *

 _"… two hundred bucks a day, Fluff. Three hundred and sixty five days a year since I was twelve …"_

Nick's eyes widened.

 _He had_ hated _her!_

 _She had been about to call his bluff, about to destroy his work._

 _About to destroy his mother!_

 _He had absolutely despised her!_

 _But she had given him no choice. She had hustled him good!_

 _So he tried to make her pretend investigation a living hell, hampering her with the aid of his old buddy Flash, trying his hardest to make her job as difficult as possible. After all, if she failed, the problem she posed for him would be gone, right?_

 _But then he had learned that her investigation was all but pretend. Not only that, but failing would cost her the job, cost her the future she had worked so hard to build._

 _She had coerced him into helping her out of sheer desperation. She had turned to a fox, a mammal she secretly feared, to help her solve a crime, because nobody else had felt inclined to help her._

 _So he helped her._

 _And a fat lot of good that did!_

Nick walked over to Judy, taking the carrot pen out of her paw, staring at it in wonderment.

He remembered this!

 _"I … I know you'll never forgive me, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't forgive me either."_

 _Don't turn around!_

 _"I was ignorant, and irresponsible, and small-minded."_

 _Do not turn around!_

 _"The predators shouldn't suffer because of my mistakes. I have to fix this. But I can't do it without you."_

 _Her voice breaks! God! I can't listen to this! It hurts!_

 _Don't let her see that she gets to you!_

 _"And … and after we're done, you can hate me, and …"_

 _Weeping! She's weeping! Come on, Nick, turn around!_

 _NO!_

Nick began to hyperventilate.

 _"… and that would be fine, because I was a horrible friend, and I hurt you."_

 _Yes, you did. Oh yes, you did!_

 _"And you … and you can walk away, knowing that you were right all along."_

 _Right about what?_

 _"I really am just a dumb bunny."_

 _Wow! Never thought she would admit to this!_

And of course he had had to rub it in.

 _"I really am just a dumb bunny … I really am just a dumb bunny …"_

Plants … Nighthowlers … a dart gun … blue pellets … savage predators … a daring plan …

A swirling maelstrom of images, disconcerting in its scope and speed …

 _A bunny willing to let me put my jaws around her neck._

 _A bunny who had, only weeks before, threatened me with fox repellant._

 _A bunny I had thoroughly hated._

 _But I could never hate her anymore!_

 _I could never hurt her._

Nick gasped.

 _"Ooh, actually …"_

 _"And I'll dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way."_

 _"It's your word against yours. It's called a hustle, sweetheart. Boom!"_

"Nick," Judy said in alarm.

 _She had been there, during graduation, giving a rousing speech. And afterwards they had shared a carrot milkshake, the first of many, with two straws, promising each other eternal friendship. Judy had celebrated this momentous occasion with a selfie, the first of many._

 _They had become partners and had taken the world by storm._

 _He had taken a bullet for her._

 _She had been his partner, his friend, his confidante._

 _The love of his life._

 _Until …_

Nick screwed up his face as if he was in intense pain. He stumbled over to her desk, with eyes unseeing, the carrot pen falling from deadened digits.

 _Until a stupid virus had taken all that away from him._

He propped himself up on her desk in a desperate attempt to avoid himself from collapsing.

 _He had been at her funeral. A warm summer's day. Hundreds of thousands of mammals had paid their last respects to the bunny that had basically changed …_

 _Hold on a second!_

* * *

 _What's going on?_

Nick spun around, looking down at her.

"Judy," he whispered.

She frowned at him, at a loss for words.

He fell down to his knees, right in front of her. She saw tears running down his face.

And then he took her in a bone-crushing hug. Huge sobs shook his body.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" he screamed right next to her sensitive ears.

Judy winced, but then she understood.

He had to watch her go into cardiac arrest. Bogo had to sedate him. So the last thing he had seen …

 _Wait!_

Her train of thoughts came to a screeching stop.

 _He remembers!_

Nicholas Wilde was back!

She wanted to return the hug, but he had pinned her arms to the side. Breathing was difficult. She could almost feel her ribs buckle.

"Nick …," she gasped. "You're … crushing … me!"

The pressure lessened immediately. She pulled her arms out from under his and returned the hug, putting her head on his shoulder. Tears ran down her face, both of their faces, as they just hugged each other for what felt like an eternity.

Judy Hopps was alive.

Nick Wilde had his memories back.

"Judy!" Nick effectively wailed. "I thought I'd lost you!"

"And I thought I had lost _you_ ," Judy cried into his shoulder. "You remember?"

"I remember _everything_ , Judy! I remember you being in that quarantine room, going into cardiac arrest."

"They saved me, Nick."

"I didn't know." He disentangled from her and looked at her from an arm's length. Joy, pure, unbridled joy made his eyes sparkle, despite the tears. Tears of joy. "I had a nightmare about your funeral!"

"My funeral?"

"Yeah." He swallowed, and his tears subsided slowly, but his voice was still shaky. "It was just too much. You were ill, nobody knew if you would survive, and everybody was talking about your possible death. Mr. Big had even talked about financing your funeral. It all came together."

"So when I went into cardiac arrest, you had a nightmare about me being dead?"

"Yes. I remember being absolutely frantic, but that's the last thing I remember."

"Bogo had to take you out with a sedative."

"Ah. Figures. He sedated me, and I had a nightmare. About your funeral. Everybody was there, even my mother. She was crying for you, even though you've never met."

"I met her a few days ago, remember."

He paused. "Yeah, right."

"She told me I should fight for you to get your memories back."

He nodded, smiling. "That's my mom for you."

Judy looked down. "I'm sorry."

Nick hesitated. "For what?"

"For hustling you back then. Had I known you'd need the money to pay the medical bills …"

Nick put his paw on her mouth, muffling her. "You didn't know, and you apologized already. Besides, had I known what I know now, you'd never been able to hustle me."

Judy raised her head again, looking at Nick. Looking into his eyes. "Well, I was desperate!"

"I know. It's okay. Water under the bridge, as they say." He made a pause. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Leaving you earlier today."

She closed the gap again, hugging him. "You came back. That's what counts."

He returned the hug. She held him close, relishing the feeling.

Something stirred deep inside of her.

 _No, I must fight it!_

 _You're fighting a losing battle here, Judy!_

"Nick, I love you."

 _Wait, did I really just say this?_

He chuckled. "I know."

Had she been sober, she would have left it at that. But she wasn't.

 _Oh, what the hell! You only live once!_

She let go of him again. "No, Nick! I! Love! You!"

His joyous smile vanished instantly.

To be replaced with a look of sheer and utter shock when she grabbed his head with both paws and ran her chin over his muzzle.

* * *

 _Did she just … scent-mark me?_

He sniffed cautiously.

Her scent nearly overwhelmed him, making him feel decidedly light-headed.

It was as if his very nose had been doused in her scent.

This was it. Not her beautiful face, not her stunning body, not her charming personality, not her wit.

Her scent.

Her scent had been driving him nuts for years.

Ever since he got to know her.

When he had first sensed her scent, he had known that she was something else.

That she would one day be his mate.

Now she had marked him.

She had declared him to be her mate.

Instinct took over.

* * *

He grabbed her head and ran his chin over her forehead.

She ran her chin over his shoulders.

He ran his chin over her chest.

Clothing was discarded in a hurry.

She marked his stomach.

He marked her legs.

She marked his arms.

He marked her long ears.

At some point during their wild exchange of scent marks, their lips found each other. Lips parted, tongues fenced with each other.

Not sweet and caring. Possessive. Aggressive. Demanding. Staking a claim. Making a statement.

 _This is my mate._

Certain parts of their respective anatomies began begging for attention.

Attention was given.

They were a perfect match.

Shortness of breath. Moans. Gasps. Cries of pure bliss. Ecstasy. A shuddering climax.

Two minds thinking as one.

 _Yes!_

* * *

Coming down from their peak, lying on her bed, he looked into her eyes and she in his. Mutual agreement.

This hadn't been just a mere fling. This was something else. This was deeper. This was so much more than each of them alone.

Now they were one.

Mates.

There was silence. Then the no-nonsense bunny slowly took over again, replacing the sensuous one.

"You know this was a mistake."

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Well, maybe we can keep it from Chief Bogo."

Nick chuckled. "I doubt it."

She made a frown, propping herself up on one elbow, looking down at him. "Why?"

"Well, I don't know how to break this to you, but …," he raised his head to run his chin over her nose again.

Her eyes widened while her nose was, yet again, drenched in his scent. "Oh! My! Goodness!"

Nick nodded. "We marked each other _good_!"

He was right; she could sense her own scent on him while having the feeling that she had showered in his scent.

"At least every predator in the ZPD will know immediately what we've been up to, and most prey will know it, too. And even if Bogo's nose isn't up to the task, someone will tell him. You smell like fox, I smell like bunny."

"I have smelt like fox for a long time. My mother told me so."

"Yeah, that was _accidental_ marking. _This_ is something else. You just can't compare the two. Accidental marking is overlooked, as it happens every day and at every place. Every mammal bears the scent of other mammals, and it usually is so faint that I can hardly smell it. This here isn't. This, no one can overlook. You cannot overlook the huge fire on a mountaintop."

She collapsed back onto the bed, thinking. "We might lose our jobs."

He sighed. "No, you won't. I will."

"What do you mean?"

"Since we cannot be together while we both are cops, one of us has to leave. And it can't be you. You always wanted to be a cop. It's your lifetime ambition. And if I have to decide between being a cop and having you," he turned towards her, "I choose you."

She turned towards him. "You would do that?"

"You better believe it."

Since their muzzles were so close, they gave each other a quick kiss. "Well, maybe they will make an exemption."

"I doubt it. We are the ZPD's poster girl and boy. The media will go absolutely bananas."

Judy nodded. "A few mammals will be so pissed-off! Prey and predator. The ultimate no-no."

He shrugged. "I've seen it before. Not often, but I've seen it. But," he made a pause for effect, "those that were in a prey/predator relationship always were very clandestine about it. I don't think we'll have the luxury."

"Probably not. We can't be secretive about this, that's for sure." She turned her head to look at him. "What do you say? Shall we go out and tell everyone?"

"I don't know if we can keep it under wraps, if our workmates can keep it under wraps, so we might as well. The city will probably know about this quickly anyway. And they will let us know that they know."

"Come on! How tough can be it be?"

"Knowing this city as well as I do, very, very tough."

"You think so?"

He chuckled. "Remember our first meeting? I told you Zootopia ain't that happy place where predator and prey live in harmony and sing Kumbayah. What the public eye sees, that's not Zootopia. I know the other side, I grew up on the other side. And you know just as well as I do, that other side ain't exactly pretty. And this so not-pretty side, they might take sides against us. We need to be aware of that. We need to be aware of the fact that one day, the hammer will fall."

Judy smiled. "Always so pessimistic. Don't you think it's better to stop thinking about this? We'll deal with it when we get there. But we aren't there yet." She placed one paw on his chest, stroking his fur, eliciting a silent growl from him. "And until we get there, I have two or three suggestions we could try."

He grinned. "Like what?"

"Something like this." She leaned over and kissed him. This time, it wasn't aggressive, but sweet and tender. Nevertheless, it had pretty much the same effect on the fox and the bunny. Paws caressed, mouths nibbled. Before long, both were ready for the second round.

He was lying prone over her, looking down at his mate, ready to consummate their second union. "I love you, Judy!"

She looked up at him with shining eyes. "I love you, Nick!"

He moved his hips. Both gasped: "YES!"

 **THE END**

 **For now …**

* * *

 ***Fireworks explode!***

 **Now you know why I insisted on having the funeral scene in Chapter Eight. I wanted this scene to be as impactful as possible - she realizes he has his memories back, he realizes she is not dead.**

 **Yeah, I was going for the big stakes here!**

 **And yes, scent marking is a huge deal in the animal kingdom. When you are marked by an animal, it's a statement that you belong to the animal's flock. It's all about relationship and possession. Humans can rarely smell the markings, but animals can. (I know what I'm talking about, because I have been scent-marked by bunnies thousands of times. And despite having a good sense of smell, I just can't smell anything amiss. Well, it's a bunny thing, obviously.)**

 **So, this was it. This was indeed the last chapter of "Now Your Nightmare Comes to Life!" Kudos to all the people you told me in their reviews and PMs that they were certain I would end it here.**

 **And what a ride it has been!**

 **When I started this, I said to myself: "If, at the end of all this, I can look at some 10 reviews and about 1000 views, I'll be quite content."**

 **Now, I am looking at numbers which are, on the whole, about twenty times as high!**

 **For the record: After more than 28,000 views, yielding 179 reviews, with 116 favorite declarations and 195 followers, this is exceeding my expectations by such a big margin, I really am stumped by this! (Edit: Right now, the stats are these: More than 84,600 views, 252 reviews, 299 favorites and 305 alerts. All this, almost two years after I finished this.)**

 **Not half bad for a first shot at writing FanFiction, a mere three weeks after the first chapter came out. Don't you agree?**

 **I really cannot thank you enough for your support! This really has been a worthwhile experience! An experience I am about to continue. But first, a few Thank Yous need dishing out.**

 **I want to thank Rhodanos (I can read your reviews fine, but I cannot answer - something wrong with your account settings?), LucarioJV, Matri, When the Crow flies, Ske1e-Prince, two guests, SingingAngel327, Trooper9099, dariusjio, PointyHairedJedi, RandomNobody37, xxmofo54xx, CauaeWynaut, hpalex13, RavenAndTheWolf, NarutoNineTaleFox, Dirtkid123, Zootopia4Life, danielshillito, greedyman, birdygirl, and luvthatpenny for their reviews, plus a host of guys sending anonymous reviews. (Which I only learned about today. Hey, I'm still new to all this!)**

 **Following an idea suggested to me by Matri, I want to use this opportunity and ask if someone out there is willing to do an illustration of the "Iron Mammal," Nick in the Iron Man suit. It needs to be both identifiable as Nick and as the Iron Man. I would do it myself, since I think Matri's idea is great, but my skills as an illustrator, ehm, how shall I put it, well, they leave a lot, and I mean A LOT to be desired. So if you are willing and able to do such an illustration, my eternal gratitude is assured! (Edit: I gave the story my very own cover image in the meantime. I might be no graphic artist, but given the right tools, picture manipulation is surprisingly easy.)**

 **Now, what will the future have in store for me? And us?**

 **Well, one thing's for sure: This is not the last time I will publish a story here. There are a few possible scenarios I can follow. The most probable course of action at this moment is that I will continue this story with its sequel. I have grown really fond of the plot I created, and I noticed that there are quite a lot of loose ends in this story. Loose ends I want to tie up. The story will, most likely, be quite convoluted, it will be much bigger in scale, it will probably be much longer, and I have no idea when I am going to start.**

 **Because this one has literally exploded out of me, and to be honest, I feel quite drained now.**

 **So now I am announcing a hiatus of probably a few weeks. I will continue visiting this website to read and answer reviews, but I will probably not publish a lengthy story any time soon. Maybe one or two one-shots, but that's it.**

 **To make a long story short: We'll meet again in a few weeks, with a new story of yours truly, probably named "Waiting for the Hammer to Fall" (yeah, another reference to a song I like, "Hammer to Fall" by Queen, written by Brian May and published by EMI and Capitol in 1984).**

 **Once again, a huge and heartfelt Thank You to all of you reading the story and commenting on it.**

 **Until we meet again!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


	21. Postscriptum

**Hello, my fellow Zootopians!**

 **No new chapter, no! The story's complete, after all.**

 **However, I want you to notify that the first chapter of the sequel, "Hammer to Fall," is finally out! In case you want to see what happens next, check it out!**

 **Take care!**

 **J.O. aka TheCatweazle**


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